An Experimental Representation of Natural Landscapes Through the Utilization of Analog Film Techniques

Home , Kelly Reichardt, Super 8 film camera

LEGENDS OF THE FABRICATED WILD: AN EXPERIMENTAL REPRESENTATION OF NATURAL LANDSCAPES THROUGH THE UTILIZATION OF ANALOG FILM TECHNIQUES

NICHOLAS TWARDUS B.A. Florida Gulf Coast University, 2016

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in the Department of Film and Mass Media in the Nicholson School of Communication and Media in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida

Spring Term 2019

ABSTRACT

Legends of the Fabricated Wild is a feature-length body of work of landscape films.

Voice-Destroy, Self-Portrait: Impermanence and the titular Legends of the Fabricated Wild are the experimental films that comprise my body of work. Keep your Distance, a single-channel installation, is a supplemental piece.

Legends of the Fabricated Wild frames the complex interaction between a filmmaker and the collective unconsciousness of the natural environment, a theory outlined by Carl Jung, considering the implications and discoveries along the way. Subtle movement and precise compositions provide a transcendental perspective on the natural Florida landscape. Images of landscapes devoid of human figures are structured together in my work to meditate on the environment and the way humanity has shaped the landscape. Super 8mm and 16mm analog film frames expansive landscapes in a square image and challenges modern cinematic representations by applying the texture of celluloid. High definition digital video contrasts analog film. I foreground artificiality and the ways humanity has utilized the landscape through this medium.

While searching for places to document “pure” or untouched landscapes, I discovered that modern landscapes are always influenced by the exchange between humanity and the natural environment. I wanted to foreground my own interaction with the natural Florida environment and challenge my interests and dominant ways of viewing landscapes. Through the assembly of a cinematic essay of landscape images with subtle motion, I foster an appreciation for the natural environment in an age of hyper-activity and exploitation of the landscape.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to extend the utmost gratitude to my thesis advisors Lisa Danker and Kate

Shults for their dedication and unwavering support of my work. As my mentors, Lisa and Kate guided my growth as an experimental filmmaker, instructor and scholar of cinema. I greatly appreciate the time and care they showed for my filmmaking. Through their example, I learned what it means to be a professional in this field. Thank you for molding me into the filmmaker I always wanted to be, for always challenging me to achieve the best and for being the greatest mentors I have known. Finding the confidence to simply believe in myself has always been my greatest flaw. Lisa and Kate believed in me every moment I was in the graduate program and granted me the encouragement in my ability that I sorely lacked. At 24-years-old, I still have a great deal of life left to live. The experience and knowledge that Lisa and Kate provided has prepared me for a long career that I am eager to begin and develop. Know that I truly appreciate it and will never forget it.

Thank you, Lisa Mills, for navigating me and many other UCF graduate students through the Film Masters of Fine Arts program as our coordinator. Dr. Mills addressed our concerns and led us through many moments of turbulence with care. I would also like to thank the rest of my committee. Brooks Dierdorff, for enabling me to speak fluently about my work. Lisa Peterson, for framing narrative production strategies in an experimental modality and Keri Watson for the wealth of knowledge on Florida landscape representation.

I would also like to thank the UCF film faculty, particularly the graduate faculty, for their flexibility considering a feature-length thesis project as a body of work. Especially Tim Ritter for encouraging me to apply for the program and supporting my experimental filmmaking pursuits.

Additionally, thank you Jon Bowen, Yson DeBlois and everyone in the UCF Equipment Room for your endless patience, adaptability to my thesis body of work and willingness to aid in the comprehension of film and facilities equipment.

Thank you to my M.F.A. cohort. In particular, I would like to thank Jason Gregory. We experienced a great deal of happiness and stress together during our time together as graduate students. We are ending our tenure graduating on time and as accomplished instructors of record.

Jason, thank you for the endless support and the opportunities to learn from your example. In

Jason, I have gained memories with a great friend that I will always cherish. Also, thank you to the Sunspot Cinema Collective for presenting the opportunity to collaborate with like-minded experimental filmmakers.

Thank you to my family and close friends who have continued to show interest and support in my work and endeavors. Thank you for granting me the courage to persevere.

Last, but certainly not least, thank you to my partner Hannah Sacco. Thank you for always being there for me, for relocating to Orlando and for broadening your definition of cinema to include my work. Even in times of great stress and discouragement, you were always there to grant a comforting presence. I will always appreciate it. I love you more than the sunlight that fuels my filmmaking. I can’t wait to go on many more wonderful adventures with you and support your wishes. Even though we have been together for years, I’m elated to begin our lives together.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF FIGURES ...... ix

INTRODUCTION: FILMMAKER’S STATEMENT ...... 1

CHAPTER ONE: EVIDENCE OF AESTHETIC LITERACY ...... 3

Aesthetic Literature Review ...... 3

Introduction ...... 3

Depictions of Florida ...... 4

Utilizing the Experimental Landscape Film Mode ...... 6

Essay Film Influences...... 12

Audience Responses to Films with a Landscape Focus ...... 17

Carl Jung’s Theory of the Forest’s Collective Unconsciousness ...... 18

Conclusion ...... 23

Screening List ...... 23

Films included in Body of Work ...... 25

Voice-Destroy (May 2018) ...... 26

Keep Your Distance (January 2019) ...... 26

Self-Portrait: Impermanence (March 2019) ...... 27

Legends of the Fabricated Wild (April 2019) ...... 28

References ...... 29

CHAPTER TWO: EVIDENCE OF PRODUCTION LITERACY ...... 32

Production Literature Review ...... 32

Introduction ...... 32

Shifting the Natural Landscape to the Foreground...... 33

Depicting Landscapes with Minimalism ...... 36

Color Palette ...... 37

Equipment...... 38

Incorporating an Open Frame ...... 42

The Square Image ...... 43

My Composition of Natural Landscapes ...... 44

Harnessing Natural Light ...... 46

Sound Design...... 47

Utilizing Kuleshov Editing Techniques to Create Spatial Representations ...... 49

Reflection on Developing my Body of Work...... 50

Conclusion ...... 52

Location Lists ...... 53

Tentative Shooting Schedule ...... 54

References ...... 56

CHAPTER THREE: EVIDENCE OF FINANCIAL LITERACY ...... 60

Business Plan ...... 60

Artist’s Statement & Objectives ...... 60

Artist’s Statement ...... 60

Strategic Objectives ...... 61

Project Description ...... 64

Synopsis ...... 64

Project Details ...... 65

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Financing ...... 67

Method of Funding ...... 67

Film Festival Research ...... 68

Legends of the Fabricated Wild Festival Targets ...... 68

Voice-Destroy and Self-Portrait: Impermanence Festival Targets ...... 78

References ...... 82

APPENDIX A: BUDGET...... 83

APPENDIX B: EQUIPMENT ROOM FORMS AND LIST OF EQUIPMENT USED...... 91

APPENDIX C: FLICKERING LANDSCAPE CONFERNECE ABSTRACT...... 96

APPENDIX D: KEEP YOUR DISTANCE INSTALLATION PITCH ...... 98

APPENDIX E: KEEP YOUR DISTANCE DOCUMENTATION ...... 100

APPENDIX F: SHOT LISTS ...... 105

APPENDIX G: VISUAL DOCUMENTS ...... 123

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1: Still from Legends of the Fabricated Wild. Digital Video. Nick Twardus...... 7

Figure 2: Still from Self-Portrait: Impermanence. Super 8. Nick Twardus...... 11

Figure 3: Still from Voice-Destroy. Super 8. Nick Twardus...... 12

Figure 4: Diagonal black-and-white landscape altered with yellow gel. 16mm. Nick Twardus .. 15

Figure 5: Accompanying sketch in production journal. Nick Twardus...... 16

Figure 6: Location scouting photo from the Econ River Wilderness area. Nick Twardus...... 21

Figure 7: Still from Voice-Destroy. Super 8. Nick Twardus ...... 26

Figure 8: Still from Keep your Distance. 16mm. Nick Twardus ...... 27

Figure 9: Still from Self-Portrait: Impermanence. Super 8. Nick Twardus ...... 28

Figure 10: A still from Legends of the Fabricated Wild. 16mm. Nick Twardus...... 29

Figure 11: Still image from Legends of the Fabricated Wild. Super 8. Nick Twardus...... 36

Figure 12: An abstract image from Legends of the Fabricated Wild. 16mm. Nick Twardus...... 40

Figure 13: Black-and-White landscape from Voice-Destroy. Super 8. Nick Twardus ...... 66

INTRODUCTION: FILMMAKER’S STATEMENT

The research that follows is for the films that I have made while a student in the Film

M.F.A. program at the University of Central Florida. Legends of the Fabricated Wild is a feature-length experimental body of work of landscape films that defy conventional depictions of landscapes. Voice-Destroy, Self-Portrait: Impermanence and Legends of the Fabricated Wild are the experimental short films that comprise my body of work. Keep your Distance is a film installation that will supplement my body of work.

I use extended pacing, subtle movement and precise compositions to provide a transcendental perspective on the natural Florida landscape. Analog images of landscapes devoid of human action are structured together in my work to meditate on the environment’s natural subtlety. I use the experimental mode to frame protected environments in Central Florida that have a unique relationship between the artificial (human interference) and the natural, to foreground early cinema’s history with the natural environment. I primarily use small-gauge analog film to apply the texture of the film image and the qualities of the square image into my visual language. Analog film is also used to embalm perspectives of these natural landscapes on celluloid, to preserve them from the passage of time which will eventually eradicate these landscapes through climate change or development.

Sometimes, I combine different film stocks and digital footage to create new and unique representations of the Florida wilderness. Shooting the natural Florida landscape in high-grain black and white film calls upon the materiality of the film strip through dynamic contrast and tonal range. Low-grain color negative stock allows me to saturate the image with vibrant colors that create identifiable forms within the landscape. Film images juxtaposed with digital footage

1 generate a feeling of artificiality through the pixilation of the image. I also experiment with my filmmaking through double exposure, lens choices, rapid movement, depth of field and other methods to foreground the technical qualities of the medium and break from traditional viewing techniques.

The thesis that follows begins with proving my knowledge of aesthetic literacy. A literature review considers conventional landscape representations of Florida and the world through cinema and art. This literature review also presents experimental depictions of landscapes by Peter Hutton as an analog to my work. I provide stills of my body of work to draw parallels between my research and filmmaking, an exchange that is important when considering my approach.

Next, I provide evidence of production literacy by presenting an in-depth literature review considering my use of equipment and reasons why. The final section of my Electronic

Thesis Dissertation collects a budget, business plan and film festival targets to show evidence of financial literacy. Additionally, I have collected important documents within the appendix that supplements my methods for completing this work.

Upon entering the film graduate school program at the University of Central Florida, I wanted to focus on my cinematic representation of natural landscapes. Every significant decision was made with this goal in mind. I am immensely proud of the research I have accomplished and grateful for the development of my cinematic voice. What follows is a documentation of the journey towards the definition of my work within the experimental landscape modality.

CHAPTER ONE: EVIDENCE OF AESTHETIC LITERACY

Aesthetic Literature Review

Introduction

The natural Florida Landscape serves as the primary inspiration for my work as a filmmaker and for my experimental body of work Legends of the Fabricated Wild. I seek to use this mode to make the locations within the natural Florida environment and confrontation of conventional landscape representations a structuring element. The Florida wilderness has a diverse ecological landscape that must be revealed through an artisanal approach to communicate this idea. It is also an environment that humanity tames, exploits and frequently fails within. I would like to make my imagery of the heavily-contested Florida wilderness the dominant focus of my experimental body of work Legends of the Fabricated Wild. This will be accomplished through the foregrounding of the filmmaking medium and by utilizing the various artistic and filmic representations of Florida throughout history. I view my work as landscape-based and situated within the landscape filmmaking practice. I intend to survey painterly and filmic depictions of landscapes throughout art and film history. The correlation between still painting and my moving images is through an artistic movement known as luminism, which was evidenced by filmmaker Peter Hutton that foregrounds the contained, rather than expansive, qualities of a landscape. I will also detail the importance of the textual element of my film through an analysis of the writing methods of Joan Didion. The psychology of Carl Jung will be used to frame my unconscious motivations for exploring this subject.

Depictions of Florida

Since the film takes place largely within the Florida environment and is rooted in my interaction within it, I have studied visual depictions of Florida on film, in art and in popular culture. Normally, Florida is portrayed with a pastel color palette that evokes the color of countless motels dotted along Interstate 4 in Central Florida or the blue water and tan beaches along the Gulf of Mexico. The natural Florida landscape is frequently portrayed with pastoral and idealistic tendencies. Susan J. Fernández and Robert P. Ingalls write in Sunshine in the Dark that the “natural Florida environment in literature symbolizes romantic possibilities,” (102). This notion is displayed greatly through artwork created by Florida artists. From the 1950s through the 1980s, a group of twenty-six African-American painters known as the “Florida

Highwaymen,” used bright colors to portray Florida. They also characterized a space through their paintings by creating work while within it. Gary Monroe, author of the article “Art History in the Marking: Recognizing the Movers and Shakers of the Highwaymen Phenomenon” in the periodical Antiques and Art around Florida stated that the collaboration of these artists was important to depicting a vision of the sunshine state. Monroe writes that “many people maintain their connections with the glowing versions of Florida as paradise which the highwaymen had created. Today their paintings are collectively recognized as our shared vision,” (27).

Florida Landscape from highwayman Livingston “Castro” Roberts is an important painting from 1960 that establishes a view of the natural Florida landscape through visual media.

Roberts uses a green, blue and light purple color palette to suggest a warm and comforting view of the Florida landscape. He also uses mangrove trees and clouds in the sky that lead to a characteristically-low horizon line to create a depth and vastness in the landscape. Roberts paints white herons that populate the area underneath the horizon line, which also contains a body of

4 water in a marsh that closely resembles planes of glass. The qualities of this painting serve as the foundation for understanding how to depict color visions of the natural Florida landscape.

However, the Florida wilderness is a place largely characterized by a brown, blue and green color palette and depicted with ample amounts of positive space. This treatment is shared by Florida artists that illustrate the natural Florida landscape. Tallahassee-based painter Lilian

Garcia-Roig depicts occurrences within the natural Florida environment through her painting

Fallen Tree: Snarled Beauty (2005). In the oil painting, Garcia-Roig uses vertical brushstrokes to create an overwhelming density within the Florida wilderness. However, she also incorporates the color brown as a visual element that leads the viewer’s eye through the positive space and to the subject of the painting. This depiction of the Florida wilderness translates the emotions conveyed within that space.

Through film, the Florida wilderness is frequently depicted as a battleground between land deals and historical preservation. In the book Sunshine in the Dark, author Susan J.

Fernández and Robert P. Ingalls, write that the “Florida wilderness begs to be transformed into views of paradise,” (2). Fernández and Ingalls also state that many plots set within the natural

Florida environment involve humans attempting to “conform the environment to their needs,”

(43). This notion stems from the innate interest of humans with the natural Florida environment.

Fernández and Ingalls state that the first American settlers that arrived in Central Florida in 1791 were “drawn to Florida because of its exotic and mysterious,” nature (105). Since that time, others have been attracted to the state because of its temperate climate and water that took on qualities of physical and spiritual renewal. This led to many land booms throughout the state’s history that transformed the natural environment into shopping malls or housing developments.

The sections of the Florida wilderness that were not developed upon are preserved by many state

5 parks throughout Florida. However, state parks also contribute to the tourism that runs rampant across the state. Gary R. Mormino writes in his 2005 book Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams that “the success of state parks was because of its use of the combination of nature and advertising,” (80). But, these parks involve humans improving and taming nature for tourists with the “quantity of visitors in wilderness areas threatening their fragility,” (Mormino 115). As someone who was born and raised in Florida and spent a significant amount of time in wilderness areas as a child, I am constantly urged by unconscious desires to explore the wilderness further and capture images from it to show to others. However, I am conflicted with how these impulses actually harm the environment that I express my creativity within. It is these notions by Fernández, Ingalls and Mormino that form the guiding contradiction of my films.

Utilizing the Experimental Landscape Film Mode

Because of my focus on the natural Florida landscape and my experimental film practice,

I will be making a film that is purely landscape-based. This is a practice rooted in the study of

19th century painting, but also one that uses the power of the moving image’s use of light, time and movement to meditate on lived-in spaces brimming with qualities only featured in the natural environment. I have a passion to characterize a space through its visual history. I will be accomplishing this through the qualities of Tomas Cole’s luminist paintings in the Hudson River

School art movement and the study of filmmaker Peter Hutton to center the natural Florida environment as a subject in my filmmaking.

While a film strictly containing imagery of landscapes may not seem radical or even

“experimental” at first, please consider how Scott MacDonald, a contemporary avant-garde scholar, defines landscape film. MacDonald, in his book The Garden in the Machine, describes

6 the modality as concerned with the “history, geography and depiction of a space” with a history in 16mm independent films (xxi). He continues to describe these films as being avant-garde by nature because of radical gestures. Mainly, the fact that these films, including my own, have no form of narrative structure, plot, or figures to be characterized. Landscape films are simply films directly containing imagery of landscapes (see Fig.1). MacDonald writes that these films feature a simplicity and directness that establishes an anti-commercial aesthetic. This creates a distinctive and radical film form firmly entrenched within the avant-garde (6-7).

Figure 1: Still from Legends of the Fabricated Wild. Digital Video. Nick Twardus.

In the beginning of the 19th century, the Hudson River school art movement was established. Trudy Mercadal, in the Salem Press Encyclopedia entry on the Hudson River school, writes that the movement, “formed in the early to mid-nineteenth century, refers to a group of

7 painters who sought to capture images of untamed nature that they believed were representative of the spirit of the nation.” In an age of industrialism, the painters in the Hudson River school movement sought to emphasize the environment in their work and romanticize many of the qualities of it. This was done in order to show its importance in a period where the wilderness was increasingly being settled. However, because of this ideal, the Hudson River Movement fell into trappings of nationalism and manifest destiny that dominate American landscape painting.

The painters originally began depicting the area surrounding the Hudson River Valley. The movement’s work attempted to portray an idealized view of nature through their romantic portrayals of the wilderness.

Famous landscape painter Thomas Cole is considered the founder of the artistic movement and sometimes worked in opposition to it. Cole used soft lights and romantic tendencies through luminism to show the harmony between humans and the environment. His paintings depicted many landscapes around the wilderness region of eastern New York. He inspired painters “to travel to harsh terrains and in harsh conditions to paint outdoors,”

(Mercadal). Scott MacDonald, author of the “Peter Hutton: Hudson River Filmmaker” article in the pamphlet for the Thomas Cole National Historic Site, defines luminism as “offering a more meditative route to the spiritual,” than other Hudson River painters (6). He further identifies luminism as being private rather than public, which is in contrast to the operatic style of the

Hudson River art movement. The style is typically characterized with a “particular rendering of atmospheric effects” that uses “resonant, light suffused atmosphere that melded topographic divisions into a visually seamless whole,” (6).

Towards the end of his career, Cole painted River in the Catskills (1843), a painting that

MacDonald identifies as being anti-pastoral. This is observed through Cole’s depiction of a train

8 in the painting. The inclusion of an industrial item in a Hudson River painting wasn’t an attempt to normalize development in the Hudson Valley, but was a quality that “expressed Cole’s frustration with unrestrained industrialization,” (10).

Filmmaker Peter Hutton harnessed the power of the moving image and Cole’s luminist painting sensibilities to shepherd a new kind of cinema known as landscape film, a strand of experimental filmmaking. In early American film history, the landscape film was an early genre, which is defined as films that have a central focus on landscapes. Many of these early cinema filmmakers framed landscapes that were popularized by the Hudson River art movement. These films that impressed viewers with a meditative sensibility inspired Hutton. He “made a meditative gaze, especially a gaze on qualities of light and atmosphere, his fundamental rhetorical gesture,” and used “the ‘still small voice’ of luminist painting,” (MacDonald 6).

Hutton spoke extensively about his work in MacDonald’s A Critical Cinema 3: Interviews with

Independent Filmmakers:

They suggest a contemplative way of looking—whether at painting, sculpture,

architecture, or just a landscape—where the more time you spend actually looking

at things, the more they reveal themselves in a way you don’t expect. (MacDonald

243-244).

Hutton’s practice as a film artist involves uses black-and-white imagery, impressively long shots and complete silence to play up subtle movements in the landscapes that he captures on 16 mm celluloid. MacDonald remarks in his article on Peter Hutton that “the experiences

Hutton provides in these films feel extended, as a result of his timing and the unusual serenity of his images and especially their remarkable silence,” (8). The combinations of these aesthetic choices create a luminist meditative gaze on the landscapes that Hutton includes in his films.

There are times when Hutton works against the luminist painters that inspired his work.

This is achieved primarily through the use of the moving image, the subtle movements within the spaces he photographs and by defamiliarizing the landscape through black and white imagery.

His work may at first appear as still photographs that are more in line with the Hudson River movement’s frozen views of spaces. However, as Hutton’s shots are extended in sequence, the filmmaker reveals subtle motions within the frame that call upon qualities characteristic of the environments he captures and sunlight’s interaction with them. “What originally appeared to be

‘dead’ is, in fact, not only very much alive, but part of an order of motion that dwarfs the rectangular world delimited by the camera,” (MacDonald 13). Hutton also foregrounds the limitations of mechanical technology through his films by creating texture through graininess in his footage by filming in low-light conditions. “This graininess is the mechanical-chemical version of the particulars of moment-to-moment perception,” (MacDonald 17).

Hutton’s New York Portrait, Part I (1976), harnesses the power of the moving image to foreground the landscape of New York City. Hutton frames the city through unique angles that calls upon the flatness of the film frame while also using extended takes to animate his images through subtle movements of items within the landscape. Hutton harnesses the power of natural lighting and foregrounds the movements of the larger world outside of the frame to situate his work within the Luminist sensibilities of Hudson River painters like Thomas Cole. MacDonald notes that Hutton, who was inspired by Cole’s River in the Catskills, believed “that modern cinema can be redirected toward a retrieval of the purity of vision that Cole was afraid was being lost, for the benefit of a new generation,” (10).

This approach by Peter Hutton informs my approach for making my black-and-white experimental films Voice-Destroy and Self-Portrait: Impermanence and the compositional

10 serenity of my landscape film Legends of the Fabricated Wild. I intend on using black-and-white reversal film stock to portray claustrophobic spaces and defamiliarize natural Florida elements

(see Fig. 2). The tonal contrast of the emulsion will call upon my fears within the Florida wilderness that underlie my filmmaking practices.

Figure 2: Still from Self-Portrait: Impermanence. Super 8. Nick Twardus.

Another significant influence has been Jim Jarmusch’s 1984 film Stranger than Paradise.

Filmed entirely on 16mm black and white, Jarmusch portrays the Florida landscape with gray and black tones, in contrast to the representational pastel color palette that has defined Florida throughout history. I’m inspired by the black and white emulsion’s capability to portray the sky in light gray tones and foliage that is typically green as a stark black (See Fig. 3). The film stock removes the saturated color that has defined Florida for decades in favor of tonal qualities that

11 call upon the hidden details of an image. In this way, I seek to use the contrast exhibited in

Jarmusch’s Stranger than Paradise to portray a natural Florida landscape that is indifferent to my filmmaking pursuits.

Figure 3: Still from Voice-Destroy. Super 8. Nick Twardus.

Essay Film Influences

Laura Rascoroli defines the essay film mode in her 2009 book The Personal Camera as the point where documentary and fiction merge (1). Her theories on essay film stem from the writings of Italian screenwriter and theorist Cesare Zavattini who was one of the pioneers of the

Italian Neo-Realist movement. Rascoroli believes that essay film has foundational elements that lie within the writings of Zavattini and the Italian Neo-Realist movement. Zavattini states that

“the subject behind the camera is central to the discourse of cinema,” (Rascoroli 111). Rascoroli

12 describes essay film as an engaged and overtly political form of cinema with mainstream qualities (Rascoroli 2). Perhaps most importantly, essay films are meta-linguistic, autobiographical and reflective with a personal touch that is predicated on finding or creating unity in a disjointed life (Rascoroli 3-5). The foundation of an essay film rests in the filmmaker’s conflicted perspective on a certain theory or practice that they use film to work through. Philip

Lopate, in his critical essay “In search of the Centaur: The Essay-Film” writes that essay films

“track a person’s thoughts as he or she tries to work out some mental knot, however various its strands…(in a ) search to find out what one thinks about something,” (19). For me, it is about challenging conventional depictions of the landscape, but also how to characterize a space within the natural Florida environment without exploiting it. I’m also interested in discovering the reasons why I am so terrified of the Florida wilderness, and yet return frequently to it as a creative wellspring.

Chris Marker’s 1957 film Letter from Siberia is considered by Rascoroli and Lopate as a quintessential essay film. For Legends of the Fabricated Wild, Letter from Siberia is the closet essay film influence to the way I am framing my images and content. The film follows Marker exploring and uncovering the history behind regions in Siberia. The film is equal parts a travelogue that involves Marker documenting discoveries within the region and a personal reflection on the nature of the filmmaking techniques that Marker used while filming. The text of the film comes largely from the titular “letter” that is written from Marker to his fictional brother, which is a reference to his future self that will assemble the finished film. The textual aspect of the film is comprised of non-fiction and fiction elements that create mythologies and critique aspects of a region that rests in the intersection between wilderness and civilization.

Lopate states that Letter from Siberia displays “one of Marker’s key approaches as a film-

13 essayist, which is to meditate aloud on the footage that he has shot,” (20). The approach that

Marker uses when making Letter from Siberia complements the practical considerations of my filmmaking process nicely. I have also used the writings of Marker to contextualize his filmmaking process in order to aid my film. He states that “poetry is born of insecurity and the impermanence of things,” (Lopate 20).

A unique aspect about my film is that, while lacking a textual element, there is still an exchange between text and imagery throughout my film. This mainly occurs through the use of titles and a creative notebook. It communicates how my text can influence the framing of imagery in the Florida landscape through an interaction with films, research and formal observations.

During my filmmaking process, I research and explore areas within the Florida wilderness with a 16mm film camera, Super 8 camera or digital camcorder. I conceptualize my films by spending time in the natural landscape (state forests, natural parks, wilderness areas) finding locations with a great deal of aesthetic value. I also incorporate research in my process to better understand the history of a space and how it's changed, or not, over time. This time allows me to not only understand the space cinematically, but also the emotional qualities. How does it

"feel" to be in this environment? Is it because of artificial constructions or natural elements? This will largely dictate my framing techniques, conceptual approach and how I choose a medium to foreground the specific aesthetic elements of a space.

Before I shoot, I will create a shot list and/or storyboards (see Figs. 4-5) considering objectives or particular aspects of a space. I largely try to stick to this shot list, however, if something unexpected is happening, I'll adjust and re-tool my plan to accommodate the variables. I record images that harness the potential of a camera to see the natural Florida

14 landscape in many possible ways. On my shoots, I always bring an artist's journal or notebook.

This is how I keep track of my shot list and structure my pieces. After I run out of film or the digital camera's battery overheats, I'll sit within the space and write until my creative energy is spent. While there is no textual element in most of my films, these entries help me determine the subject of my film and how the images can be arranged together to communicate an idea.

Through this process, the specific qualities of spaces within the Florida wilderness take precedence in my filmmaking.

Figure 4: Diagonal black-and-white landscape altered with yellow gel. 16mm. Nick Twardus

Figure 5: Accompanying sketch in production journal. Nick Twardus.

According to famed literary essayist Joan Didion, the process of visualization is a critical aspect of writing. Didion, in her essay “On Keeping a Notebook” writes that “the scene that you see in your mind finds its own structure; the structure dictates the arrangement of the words…All the writer has to do really is find the words,” (21). Her approach to writing within her notebook has also inspired the way that I write my textual entries within the natural Florida environment and visualize images. Didion details her approach in the preface to her essay:

I write entirely to find out what’s on my mind, what I’m thinking, what I’m

looking at, what I’m seeing and what it means, what I want and what I’m afraid

of. All writing is an attempt to find out what matters, to find the pattern in the

disorder, to find the grammar in the shimmer. (21).

In this sense, my diary entries and filmmaking practice is not just an act of creativity, but to structure and arrange my thoughts and ideas into a cohesive whole. When forming titles for my films, I try to review the journal entries I wrote while filming to use text that speaks directly to

16 the imagery. Didion also writes extensively about the importance of the implacable “I” in notebooks and the situation of it as an inherently private practice. “We are talking about something private, about bits of the mind’s string too short to use, an indiscriminate and erratic assemblage with meaning only for its maker,” (Didion 24).

Audience Responses to Films with a Landscape Focus

Because of my interest in filming the natural Florida environment, my experimental landscape films are characteristic of the environmental non-fiction film. The genre is defined by

Pat Brereton and Chao-Ping Hong in their survey research article “Audience responses to environmental fiction and non-fiction films.” They categorize the genre as having

“consciousness-raising and activist intentions, as well as a responsibility to heighten awareness about contemporary issues and practices affecting planetary health,” (Brereton & Hong 171).

The genre also includes elements of nature that people are inherently interested in discovering.

“Ecologists in particular often highlight the experience of lost unity, even separation from the rest of the natural world and a desire to regain it, as central to the core meaning of human nature,” (Brereton & Hong 174). Audience desire to see a forest setting on screen aligns with my motivations for portraying the landscape prominently.

The article by Brereton and Hong was mainly concerned with detailing the results of a

“small pilot study of communications students at Dublin City University, using pilot survey/questionnaires, discussion groups and the Q-methodology,” (171). Their aim was to

“explore how audiences perceive and decode Eco-Cinema,” (Brereton & Hong 171). Upon examining the results of the study, I discovered that the responses by the participants highlighted the many pitfalls of the environmental non-fiction genre and what particular elements can be

17 improved. “(Environmental non-fiction films) often do not effectively appeal and connect to people on a personal level,” rather than pointing to issues on a societal and global scale (Brereton

& Hong 184). These respondents “wish to associate more individual experiences with elements in the films,” (Brereton & Hong 183). Brereton and Hong conclude that it seems that there is a particular call from audiences for environmental films to incorporate more simplified elements in order for a normal audience to connect with a non-fiction film (Brereton & Hong 184).

Reading these audience responses has helped my practice immensely. This has led me to the conclusion that it is important to depict the Florida wilderness prominently through my thesis film. Also, it confirms the importance of sharing my interaction with a natural landscape.

Utilizing an artisanal mode through the conceptualization of the aesthetics of my film will lead to more individualized experiences for audiences. Foregrounding my point-of-view will help me appeal to audiences on an individual level in a way that environmental non-fiction films have failed to do up until this point.

Carl Jung’s Theory of the Forest’s Collective Unconsciousness

In an attempt to better connect with the Florida wilderness through the aesthetics and content of my film, I researched the theory of the forest setting’s use in art. I discovered the work of Hans Jorg Stahlschmidt. Stahlschmidt wrote extensively about nature in art. He connected nature’s portrayal with the theories of Carl Jung in his critical article “A Dark and Damp Place:

Jungian Psychology and the Germanic Forest.”

Jung, a Swiss psychologist, is considered the founder of analytic psychology. He is best known for his theories on the orientation of the personality and study of universal symbolic representations. During his research, he coined a term called the “collective unconscious.” This

18 term, as defined by Genevieve Slomski of the Salem Press Biographical Journal Encyclopedia, refers to the universal mythological symbols that people experience in their dreams, which cross between cultures and societies.

In Stahlschmidt’s article, he attempts to situate Jung’s theory of the collective unconscious with the aesthetic value of the forest in order to demystify the power of nature.

Jung, in his book Memories, Dreams and Reflections, imagines the forest as part of the collective unconscious. Trees in a forest and the leaves on those trees represent, for Jung, individuals in the context of many. Combining the many individual plants in the forest creates a collective that rules over the figures in the wilderness. This is similar to how a collection of foliage in an environment creates a collective power. When we enter the wilderness, this collective power propels us to a time where the laws of nature ruled over us. It is because of this collective power that shifts the forest to the foreground. Jung also relates to the forest as a part of the human psyche. He writes that “the collective (origin in the woods) is brought to the foreground. The primal woods are no longer merely a backdrop, but now become primarily the nurturing landscape wherein the human psyche lives,” (Stahlschmidt 62).

In my work, I would like to harness the collective power of the forest in order to show the immense power that the Florida wilderness has over the human influence in a landscape. There are also some interesting qualities of the Florida wilderness that match up nicely with Jung’s theories of the collective unconscious.

For one, there is no way to climb above the Florida forest, unless there’s a structure or tower involved. The flatness of Florida forces you to succumb to its power and take in the collective nature of the forest all at once. The viewer has to always look up at the Florida forest.

There is also thick and dense foliage in the Florida wilderness that is indicative of the collective unconsciousness of the forest. Jung writes extensively about this, as paraphrased by

Stahlschmidt:

“The individual can recognize the power of the collective unconscious, the power

`of the tribe, the immense influence of a long and ancient human lineage. The

collective unconscious, with its genetic roots, resituates us from being focal

individuals to being merely tiny figures on the margins of the picture,” (62).

It is because of the forest’s collective power that it must be shifted to the foreground. Jung also uses terms like “the green curtain of the woods,” and “brocade” to describe his theories of the forest (Stahlschmidt 63). The “green curtain” refers to the curtain of woodland that signifies the entry point into the realm of the woods. The “brocade” is a symbolic term used to describe “the sacredness of nature itself (Stahlschmidt 63).

Frequently in his writings on the forest, Jung mentions the “origin of the woods.” This

“origin” refers to the ancientness of the history of a particular place in the wilderness.

Stahlschmidt writes that “the origins lying in this ancient collective forest cannot be erased.

Within the seeds of its plants lies the seeds of many human motive and behaviors,” (62). Also, there are aspects of our human nature that draw us to the forest. This is because of its inherent mystery, as well as our passion to discover. “In an evolutionary sense, the forest is always that which we have left, the more primitive, the more primal, the more instinctual. The forest is where the mysterious and dark secret lies,” (70). It is because of this that we have an inherit desire to reconnect with the forest psyche. In my filmmaking practice, I seek to discover areas that have some sort of untapped history behind them. In my location scouting photo from the

Econ River Wilderness area, I discovered an area in the wilderness that conveys this notion of

20 memory in the environment (see Fig. 6). It was a clearing in the middle of the wilderness that seemed strangely out-of-place because of the density of the brush around it. I ascertained that this clearing must have been created through some kind of controlled burn that took place at the location because of the black marks at the base of the pine trees. There are also pine trees in the background that lean dangerously close to falling, and remnants of trees in the foreground that were destroyed. I find that uncovering the memories and histories behind locations is essential to my work as a filmmaker.

Figure 6: Location scouting photo from the Econ River Wilderness area. Nick Twardus.

While the forest can be oppressive in many ways, Jung writes about how it can relate to the healing of the psyche and the individualization process. Jung observed that “the unconscious is a detrimental force that underlies human motivation and action, but the healing aspects of the unconscious correspond with the healing aspects of the forest,” (Stahlschmidt 68). This “healing” refers to the discovery of the self that can occur in the forest. The forest is a place that one searches for the soul. There, according the Jung’s theory, we discover our true selves through a correspondence with the forest unconscious. Afterwards, we leave forever changed by our experiences in the woods.

As a child, my experiences hiking and camping in the Florida wilderness were transformative and essential for the development of my personality. As I grew older, I began to distance myself from my experiences in the Florida wilderness and forget the reasons why I cared about it so much. Florida Gulf Coast University, my undergraduate institution, reignited my interest in the Florida wilderness because of their message of sustainability and passion for ecology. These teachings led to me returning to the Florida wilderness as a filmmaker and capturing through analog film and digital images the many unique qualities of its biomes and ecosystems. I conducted this research on the forest to discover why I am continuously inspired by the setting. However, after tapping into my subconscious through journal-writing, I have realized that my inspiration for prominently displaying the Florida wilderness in my filmmaking comes from my interaction within it. Now, in order to tap in to my unconscious desire, I use the

Florida wilderness as a source for my inspiration. I hike and wander through forests in Florida to discover aspects of which that I draw immense inspiration from. It’s also a place where I go to meditate when life becomes too stressful or when I seek answers to complex questions. My

22 passion stems from my lifelong education in environmental science and fascination with the

Florida wilderness that surrounded me.

In a way, my personal experiences in the Florida wilderness echo what Jung writes in his text. He believes that this stream-of-consciousness technique of exploring unconscious desires is important to the development of the human psyche. “Jung considered the spontaneous productions of the unconscious to be contributions to healing, as part of the way of the psyche to become whole,” (Stahlschmidt 68).

Conclusion

I hope to use the work of experimental landscape filmmakers, essay filmmakers and theories of Carl Jung when developing the aesthetics for my experimental body of work Legends of the Fabricated Wild. However, I would like to make the film unique to Florida through my knowledge of the different aspects of the environment. This will mainly be accomplished by relating my personal experiences in the Florida environment and contrasting that with its brutal nature, tapping into my irrational fear of it. Also, I hope to create an experimental landscape film that translates my enthusiasm, passion and artistic expression of the Florida wilderness.

Screening List

Baillie, Bruce, director. Castro Street (The Coming of Consciousness). 1966.

Barber, Stephanie, director. Letters, Notes. 2000.

Brakhage, Stan, director. The Machine of Eden. 1970.

Brakhage, Stan, director. The Stars are Beautiful. 1974.

Brown, Bill, director. Buffalo Common. 1999.

Brown, Bill, director. Mountain State. 2003.

Brown, Bill, director. Roswell. 1994.

Brown, Clarence, director. The Yearling, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1946.

Clipson, Paul, director. Bump Past Cut Up Through Windows. 2004.

Friedrich, Su, director. Sink or Swim. 1990.

Horsmon, Caitlin, director. Themes and Variations for the Naked Eye. 2007.

Hutton, Peter, director. New York Portrait: Chapter One. 1979.

Hutton, Peter, director. Landscape (For Manon). 1987.

Hutton, Peter, director. In Titan’s Goblet. 1991.

Hutton, Peter, director. Time and Tide. 1999.

Hutton, Peter, Director. Skagadjordur. 2004.

Iñárritu, Alejandro G., director. The Revenant. Twentieth Century Fox, 2015.

Jarmusch, Jim, director. Stanger than Paradise. The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1984.

Koszulinski, Georg, director. Last Stop, Flamingo, 2014.

Marker, Chris, director. La Jetee. Argos Films, 1962.

Marker, Chris, director. Letter from Siberia. New Yorker Films, 1970.

McElwee, Ross, director. Sherman’s March. 1986.

Mekas, Jonas, director. Williamsburg. 2002.

Olsen, Jenni, director. Royal Road. Jenni Olsen Productions. 2015.

Polley, Sarah, director. Stories we Tell. Roadside Attractions. 2012.

Ramey, Kathryn, director. Yanqui Walker and the Optical Revolution. 2009.

Reichardt, Kelly, director. Old Joy. Film Science, Van Hoy Knudson Productions & Washington

Square Films, 2006.

Reichardt, Kelly, director. River of Grass. Strand Releasing. 1995.

Resnais, Alain, director. Night and Fog. Argos Films. 1956.

Rivers, Ben, director. This is My Land. 2006.

Rivers, Ben, director. I Know Where I’m Going. 2008.

Rivers, Ben, director. Two Years at Sea. Cinema Guild. 2011.

Rossellini, Roberto, director. Journey to Italy. Titanus Distribuzione. 1954.

Russell, Ben, director. BLACK AND WHITE TRYPPS NUMBER TWO. 2006.

Saintagnan, Eleonore & Motte, Gregoire, directors. Wild Beasts. 2015.

Stoltz, Mike, director. IN BETWEEN. 2011.

Sayles, John, director. Sunshine State. Sony Pictures Classics. 2002.

Trinh, T. Minh-ha, director. Reassemblage: From Firelight to the Screen. 1983.

Vertov, Dziga, director. Man with a Movie Camera. VUFKU. 1929.

Welsby, Chris, director. Anemometer. 1974.

Welles, Orson, director. F for Fake. Specialty Films, 1973.

Films included in Body of Work

I have opted to complete a body of work of experimental films for completion of thesis requirements in the program. Voice-Destroy and Self-Portrait: Impermanence are short experimental films. Legends of the Fabricated Wild is a mid-length experimental landscape film.

Keep Your Distance, an installation, supplements the body of work.

Voice-Destroy (May 2018)

A short experimental film examining the relationship between voice and image. Images of the natural Florida landscape are paired with digitally-altered audio of my voice repeating a single phrase (see Fig. 7). As the film progresses, the voice decays and abstracts while high-grain film images of the natural Florida landscape remain. Super 8.

Figure 7: Still from Voice-Destroy. Super 8. Nick Twardus

Keep Your Distance (January 2019)

An installation as part of the group exhibition “Let your Garde Down” at the Henao

Contemporary Center. The piece foregrounds the aesthetics of the film medium and the limitations of the film frame when viewing landscapes. Guests are encouraged to interact with a looped “single-shot” projection of a landscape (see Fig. 8). The “single-shot” illusion is broken

26 through the presence of the cut and subtle time displacements. Visitors interact with the landscape and become a part of the film frame with their presence. 16mm.

Figure 8: Still from Keep your Distance. 16mm. Nick Twardus

Self-Portrait: Impermanence (March 2019)

A short experimental film examining impermanence within the natural Florida landscape.

Images foregrounding human interaction within the Florida wilderness are juxtaposed with abstract sections of rapid movement (see Fig. 9). The sequencing of these shots together foregrounds fleeting traces of perspective within the natural landscape. Ambient audio is distorted and abstracted to create sounds that pair with the sections of rapid movement to create a contrast through sound design. 16mm, Super 8.

Figure 9: Still from Self-Portrait: Impermanence. Super 8. Nick Twardus

Legends of the Fabricated Wild (April 2019)

The film explores the intersections between the natural and artificial within the Florida wilderness using small-gauge film-making technology. I investigate my place within the heavily- contested landscape and sequence images strictly of the natural landscape to break from traditional viewing techniques. In a city dominated by consumerism, I use extended pacing, wide shots and subtle movement to illustrate a meditative perspective when viewing the natural

Florida landscape. I compose images that foreground the natural Florida landscape in the frame and communicate how the expansive wilderness is fabricated through cinema (See Fig. 10).

16mm, Super 8, Digital.

Figure 10: A still from Legends of the Fabricated Wild. 16mm. Nick Twardus.

References

Brereton, Pat and Chao-Ping Hong. "Audience Responses to Environmental Fiction and Non-

Fiction Films." Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture, vol. 4, no. 2, Oct.

2013, pp. 171-199. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1386/iscc.4.2.171_1.

Cole, Thomas. River in the Catskills. 1843, oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Fernandez, Susan J. and Robert P. Ingalls. Sunshine in the Dark: Florida in the Movies.

University Press of Florida, 2006.

Garcia-Roig, Lilian. Fallen Tree: Snarled Beauty. 2005, oil on canvas, Lilian Garcia-Roig. In the

Eyes of the Hungry: “Florida’s Changing Landscape,” by Keri Watson, PHD, Patriot

Press Inc., p. 51.

Hutton, Peter, director. New York City Portrait, Part One. 1976.

Jarmusch, Jim, director. Stranger than Paradise. The Samuel Goldwyn Company. 1984.

“Joan Didion, ‘On Keeping a Notebook’ Accessing Higher Ground, 4 Jan. 2018,

http://accessinghigherground.org/handouts2013/HTCTU%20Alt%20Format%20Manuals

/Processing%20PDF%20Sample%20Files/00%20On%20Keeping%20a%20Notebook.pd

Jung, Carl Gustav. Memories, Dreams and Reflections. Vintage, 1961.

Lopate, Phillip. “In search of the Centaur: The Essay Film.” The Threepenny Review, Winter

1992, pp. 19-22. JSTOR.

Marker, Chris, director. Letter from Siberia. New Yorker Films, 1970.

MacDonald, Scott. A Critical Cinema 3: Interviews with Independent Filmmakers. University of

California Press. 1998.

MacDonald, Scott. Peter Hutton: Hudson River Filmmaker. Thomas Cole National Historic Site.

2016.

MacDonald, Scott. The Garden in the Machine: A Field Guide to Independent Films about

Place. University of California Press. 2001.

Mercadal, Trudy, MA. "Hudson River School (Painting)." Salem Press Encyclopedia, January.

EBSCOhost,

.ucf.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=87322636&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Monroe, Gary. "Art History in the Making: Recognizing the Movers and Shakers of the

Highwaymen Phenomenon." Antiques & Art around Florida, vol. 40, Winter/Spring2008,

pp. 27-31. EBSCOhost,

.ucf.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=asu&AN=28798152&cpidlogin.asp?custid=current

&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Mormino, Gary R. Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams. University Press of Florida, 2008.

Rascoroli, Laura. The Personal Camera. Wallflower Press. 2009.

Roberts, Livingston. Florida Landscape. C. 1960s, Oil on Canvas, UCF Art Gallery Permanent

Collection, Orlando. In the Eyes of the Hungry: “Florida’s Changing Landscape,” by

Keri Watson, PHD, Patriot Press Inc., p. 46.

Slomski, Genevieve. "Carl Jung." Salem Press Biographical Encyclopedia, January. EBSCOhost,

direct=true&db=ers&AN=88801411&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Stahlschmidt, Hans Jorg. "A Dark and Damp Place: Jungian Psychology and the Germanic

Forest." Mythosphere, vol. 2, no. 1, Feb. 2000, p. 58. EBSCOhost,

.ucf.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hus&AN=3977145&site=eds-live&scope=site.

CHAPTER TWO: EVIDENCE OF PRODUCTION LITERACY

Production Literature Review

Introduction

The Florida wilderness serves as my main source of inspiration as a filmmaker. I focus my work on the Florida environment to challenge dominant landscape representations and communicate its importance to humanity. I explore wilderness areas that have a unique relationship between the artificial and nature. I frame my surroundings in new ways to not only connect with my personal experiences in the natural Florida landscape but also foreground an artisanal modality. Because of this, the Florida wilderness serves as a dominant influence for my filmmaking. It is the backbone for my landscape film Legends of the Fabricated Wild and accompanying body of work.

Florida is where I was born and raised. The Florida wilderness is where I went to fuel my passion for exploration. I would identity its unique aesthetic qualities during the most challenging points in my life. Conversely, it is where my fears take hold. I believe that it is important to foreground the Florida wilderness throughout the production of my experimental body of work in order to convey this unique perspective to an audience and investigate my motivations as a filmmaker. I plan to connect the thematic elements that make up the content of my film with the landscape paintings of Albrecht Altdorfer. I am also interested in the flatness of

Florida. In these biomes, there is no vantage point where you can climb above the natural Florida landscape. In Florida, you must venture within the dense and harsh foliage in order to reach a destination. I have always been interested in the challenge of navigating through the Florida wilderness and conveying the density of it through images with dense positive space. I will

32 communicate this by deconstructing the cinematic techniques of Kelly Reichardt, who uses micro-budget techniques to create a grounded form of cinema, as well as communicate my utilization of aesthetic techniques that break from traditional landscape representation. I find that

I have a much closer relationship to the cosmic history of a wilderness space by conveying it in this way. I will survey post-production techniques in order to harness this relationship through the structuring of my images during the editing process and through the construction of an aural space through sound.

Legends of the Fabricated Wild will be a micro-budget mid-length landscape film that portrays my insights on the Florida wilderness through the film’s formal and thematic approach.

I believe that the Florida wilderness can be oppressive and brutal; however, it has the healing aspects necessary to lead to the individualization of one’s self. I hope to utilize the constraints of the micro-budget filmmaking model to make an avant-garde film rooted in the Florida wilderness and portray the environment not as a backdrop, but as a dominant element. I hope to show this by centering the Florida forest in my frame and portraying it prominently. Altdorfer and Reichardt incorporate the natural landscape prominently in their work and display a unique situational awareness that informs their artistic craft and formal visual structure. These approaches will lead me to create a film that portrays the Florida wilderness in a way that is not only unique to my creative expression, but also challenges traditional technique.

Shifting the Natural Landscape to the Foreground

When considering the visual aesthetics for Legends of the Fabricated Wild and my body of work, I have thought about the way painters depicted landscapes. Beginning in the renaissance period of the 15th and 16th centuries, Italian artists portrayed the human figure prominently in

33 their landscapes. This is an approach that is easily identifiable in commercial cinema production.

Hans Jorg Stahlschmidt details the many misgivings of this technique in his article "A Dark and

Damp Place: Jungian Psychology and the Germanic Forest." He writes that this approach moved

“the human drama to the foreground of artistic representation. Nature itself became the backdrop, a setting for the human protagonist,” (61). However, during the time of the “proto- renaissance” in the early 14th century, German painter Albrecht Altdorfer was transcending the techniques of later Italian artists. He shifted the German wilderness in his 1510 landscape painting Countryside of wood with St. George fighting the dragon to the foreground instead of regulating it as a mere backdrop for the figures.

Through this painting, Altdorfer displays his skill of portraying the Germanic forest prominently. He does this by centering the dense wilderness and reducing his figures to small aspects of the painting on the bottom right-hand corner. Altdorfer not only makes the German wilderness prominent in his painting, but also establishes it as oppressive due to the immense volume of woodland contained in the frame over the figures. In the bottom right-hand corner of the painting, Altdorfer paints a small exit from the wilderness that establishes the low horizon line of the painting. However, the forest encompasses the sky that would normally be above the horizon line. Altdorfer does this to create a suffocation or oppression in the power of nature over human beings. Additionally, Altdorfer skillfully creates visual rhythm through the density of the forest trees that leads the viewer’s eye down the painting and towards the ground. Simon

Sharma, writer of the book Landscape and Memory, eloquently points out that the portrayal of the landscape “interposes itself between us and our expectations of visual depth. The curtain of greenery virtually obliterates the possibility of narrative, of storytelling. The story is the forest,”

(99-100). To convey this importance in the Florida wilderness, I would like to make the

34 landscape a dominant and centered aspect of the frame in most of my shots, a position typically regulated by the sky. This will convey my views on the importance of the Florida wilderness, and the powerlessness figures feel when they enter the natural environment through the negation of an identifiable horizon line.

I am also interested in using the way that the trees of the Florida wilderness cover the sky to show the forest’s oppressive nature. The Florida wilderness includes this quality just in the foliage life alone through its many pine and oak trees, the leaves of which typically can blanket the sun. The concealment of the sky is an important aspect of my work, similar to Altdorfer’s. I conceal the sky through my filmmaking in order to avoid any romantic or spiritual connotations.

By replacing the sky with the forest above the horizon line, I attempt to show that, when within the Florida wilderness, there is no greater power than nature itself (see Fig. 11). Altdorfer, like me, had many personal reasons for depicting the forest in this way. According to the

Encyclopaedia Britannia entry on the painter, Altdorfer grew up and remained for most of his life in Regensburg, Germany (“Albrecht Altdorfer”). In Countryside of wood with St. George fighting the dragon, Altdorfer displays his immense knowledge of the German landscape through the intricate attention to detail that he exhibits through the painting of the dense forest.

Figure 11: Still image from Legends of the Fabricated Wild. Super 8. Nick Twardus.

Depicting Landscapes with Minimalism

My direct and radical approach to depicting landscapes allowing for a richly cinematic expression of the Florida wilderness stems from my interest in filmmaker Kelly Reichardt and her 2006 film Old Joy. Reichardt is a minimalist filmmaker who, similar to me, uses the resources available to her to make cinematic experiences out of the mundane of everyday life. In the 2016 Cinetaste magazine article “Thinking at Lightspeed: The Flickering Transformations of

Kelly Reichardt’s cinema,” Jason Michelitch describes the simple complexity of her narratives:

They are simple stories, told at a deliberate pace, with ambiguous, open endings.

Reichardt crafts subtle, moment-to-moment experiences that some mistake for

naive or blunt realism, but which are in fact richly imaginative cinematic

constructions. Out of simple components, she builds entire worlds. (4).

Old Joy is a film that influenced me greatly when thinking about the prominent role that the

Florida wilderness can play into my work. In the film, two men travel to a forest in Portland in order to rekindle their friendship. While the narrative of the film involves the intricacies of Kurt and Mark’s relationship, it is more concerned with how the Oregon wilderness affects and amplifies that relationship. Studying Reichardt’s approach to storytelling in the context of Old

Joy has provided me with the tools I need to frame Legends of the Fabricated in a minimal and cinematic way.

Color Palette

I want the main colors for Legend of the Fabricated Wild’s color palette to include green, blue and brown. I would like the color green to relate to the dense forest foliage that will appear prominently in my film. I imagine that this will be the dominant color of the film. Blue will be the second hue of my color palette. The forest will obscure the sky that displays the color, as the trees reach high above the horizon line. Brown will be the final color of my film’s color palette and will be my most radical use of color, since it is not typically featured prominently in Florida landscape depictions. I will incorporate this composite color in my film to relate to the trunks of the trees in the Florida wilderness and the pine straw or rotting leaves that make up the forest floor. This color palette is similar to the one that Reichardt uses in Old Joy. She dresses the two main characters, Kurt and Mark, in blue hues juxtaposed with the vast green Portland wilderness behind them. Brown creates lines and visual rhythm in the film that direct the viewer’s eye from frame-to-frame. The dynamic nature of these three colors inspired me to choose them as the dominant colors in my palette.

I am incorporating green and blue predominantly in my film because they are analogous colors. Bruce Block, writer of the foundation textbook The Visual Story, defines analogous colors as “neighbors on the color wheel. When analogous colors are placed next to one another, they appear to push apart, or separate, in their position on the color wheel,” (151). With these two analogous colors, I hope for the blue colors to push apart from the dense Florida wilderness.

Because green will be the most overpowering color in my frame, I am hoping that this will allow the Florida wilderness to appear as the most prominent aspect of the frame. I will use the color blue in order to reduce separation between the foreground and background. Block writes that the use of warm and cool colors can add depth to an image. He writes, “warm colors usually seem closer to the viewer while cool colors appear farther away,” (Block 40). I intend for the background to signify the horizon line in my image. It will be the area of my frame where the sky will appear covered by the green trees of the Florida wilderness. I intend for the color and tonal separation between green and blue to create dynamic eyelines in the flat images that my camera produces.

Equipment

When considering my personal expression that I would like to convey, I have decided to use the Bolex 16mm H16 Camera, Canon Pro814 Super 8 Film camera and Sony SR-7

Camcorder to capture the look for my thesis film. The cameras provide me with the personal approach that I am looking for and the maneuverability required to film in the Florida wilderness. They require an intimacy when shooting. For example, preparing to shoot a 16mm camera requires the filmmaker to thread a 100-foot roll of film through an internal mechanism.

To do this, you must obtain knowledge on the camera. When considering what film strip to use,

38 you must use the details of the shooting location to fine-tune the exposure of imagery. There is a great deal of individual preparation that goes into shooting on 16mm. However, a knowledge of a 16mm film strip and camera grants me the ability to experiment with landscape imagery.

Learning about double-exposure techniques and focus techniques allowed me to create abstract images in Legends of the Fabricated Wild (see Fig. 12). An interest in the fundamental interaction between sunlight and a high-grain film strip created abstract imagery that transcended

Self-Portrait: Impermanence’s thematic details. The “single-shot” landscape of Keep your

Distance would not have been created without conducting an experimentation related to the duration of a 16mm camera’s motor. These techniques foreground the analog cameras status as industrial machines. When within the natural landscape, I intend to foreground this aspect of cinema to create a dynamic juxtaposition and communicate film’s complicity with environmental destruction. This knowledge of analog techniques also bolsters my digital practices and allows me to transpose an analog approach to digital imagery.

Figure 12: An abstract image from Legends of the Fabricated Wild. 16mm. Nick Twardus.

When considering camera choices, I sided with the filmmaking approaches of famous director Jean-Luc Godard. Jean-Pierre Geuens, in his book Film Production Theory, wrote that

Godard used “the Aaton 35, a more portable, personal, and lightweight camera that can be used as a writer uses a pen,” (171). The portability of a camera is important to me when considering my body of work. I favor using these cameras because many of them are lightweight and easily transportable. While on the surface it may seem costly, working with a film camera is not very expensive when considering the time, resources and crewmembers that are required to operate a digital cine camera. In addition, economic stakes apply to each roll I shoot. These stakes add pressure and nuance to my cinematography and make sure that I properly consider my technique while shooting. The cost of shooting on film is relative to how much it would cost to supply food for a crew of 10 people, secure a location, store terabytes of footage or compensate gas mileage.

Because I am limiting my expenses by shooting in solidarity, I am able to shoot analog film in a cost-effective fashion and foreground an artisanal approach.

Working with camera materials that are portable and used for shooting home videos allow me to tap into the subjectivity of my expression. In addition, I use the limited resolution of these cameras to call upon the materiality of analog film and digital video images. Capturing the immense positive space of the Florida wilderness when using these cameras will allow me to foreground the natural landscape’s presence and detail the ephemerality of my views within that area. This technology will also give me the tools to alter images of the natural Florida landscape in post-production in order to create abstract images that represent emotions felt within these spaces.

Shooting the Florida wilderness prominently in my thesis film will require a precise lens choice that will be able to capture the immenseness and density of the forest. I have decided to primarily use 25mm prime lenses on the Bolex H16 Camera, as well as the zoom lenses on the

Canon Pro814 super 8 camera and digital video camcorder at their widest setting to accomplish this. According to Jon Silberg’s article in the Digital Video magazine on shooting The Revenant, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki primarily used the 24 mm lens, but also used ultra-wide 14 mm and 12 mm lenses on an ARRI Alexa 65 camera (“The Revenant”). Lubezki does this to capture the space surrounding the main characters. The use of a zoom lenses at its widest setting allow me to portray the Florida wilderness as immense while also pushing the technology of the cameras. The landscape behind will appear suffocating from a high angle. James Ponsoldt, writer of the Filmmaker magazine article “Sound of Silence” discussed Kelly Reichardt’s approaches to making Old Joy. In the article, he specifies that Reichardt “shot mainly with Zeiss mark I superspeed lenses-9mm, 12 mm, 16mm and 25mm” to capture the look of Old Joy.

I will use a 75mm prime lenses primarily for close-ups and to abstract the landscape. Stan

Brakhage, in his 1970 film The Machine of Eden, used a lens with a long focal length to abstract and foreground slight camera movements within a landscape. I will frame a wide landscape through a 75mm lenses to break from traditional landscape viewing convention and foreground the filmmaking medium. The use of a longer focal length also calls upon slight traces of movement easily. This technique led to the creation of the rapid movement sections in Self-

Portrait: Impermanence.

Incorporating an Open Frame

When considering the framing for my thesis film, because I will mostly be shooting outdoors, I will need to incorporate the use of an open frame in my visual language. This is mainly because where I will be shooting cannot be controlled or closed off. Reichardt’s micro- budget filmmaking technique relates to mine when considering an open frame. When discussing her approach to framing her 2008 film Wendy and Lucy in an interview with Katey Rich from

Cinema Blend at the 2008 New York Film Festival, Reichardt states, “we leave it all open. Try to keep the apparatus small enough that it's not glaring that you're shooting a movie. But everything's open, and whatever happens in the frame, happens in the frame. Nothing closed for us; we can't afford it,” (“NYFF Exclusive Interview: Kelly Reichardt”). This informs my ideological methods as a filmmaker. I am interested in the history of a place and in portraying the

Florida wilderness the way it looks presently. Additionally, I am not comfortable controlling a space, or modifying it to my means. I strive to leave an environment exactly as it was before. By leaving the frame open, I am able to make the landscape almost true-to-life. I also consider all the aspects of the Florida wilderness outside of the frame. This will lead to a sense of materiality

42 in the natural Florida landscape as well as lend itself to any spontaneous elements like animals, weather or light dynamics. The use of an open frame will allow me to portray the Florida wilderness prominently, since it will be surrounding everything outside of the frame.

I compose my frame as open so that I can portray the surrounding environment as lived- in. Geuens states that Andre Bazin’s observation of film technique “constantly urges us to complete what is not in the frame,” (179). Bazin’s theory postulates that a fact of cinema was that the character “may be out of sight, but the diegetic world lives on,” (Geuens 179). When composing my shots, I would like to spend significant time observing and dissecting the environment of the particular biome where I shoot. This would mean adhering to French filmmaker Dominique Villain’s film technique. Villain stresses the importance of remaining

“ubiquitous in some way—one eye in the viewfinder, the other open to the outside—so as to become available to what is taking place beyond the borders of the frame,” (16). By using this technique, I will use the surrounding environment as my guide to frame shots.

The Square Image

To convey the Florida wilderness prominently in my film, it will also be important to consider the borders of my frame. I would like to show the vertical scale of the forest as well as the immense space surrounding it by using the dynamic square format, rather than a traditional widescreen dimension. In 1930, acclaimed Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein submitted a defense to the Academy of Motion Picture and Sciences of the “dynamic square” frame. For

Eisenstein, it was “the only shape capable of answering all the visual demands of a multiform cinema,” (Geuens 173). Because of the neutrality of the square image, Eisenstein later wrote,

“the struggle, the conflict of both tendencies could be activated,” (Eisenstein 52). By using the

43 square frame, I will be able to show the contrast between the verticality of the forest and the horizontal plane. The dynamic square will give me the opportunity to portray the Florida wilderness as the prominent aspect of my frame. This is similar to how Albrecht Altdorfer portrayed the Germanic forest in Countryside of wood with St. George fighting the dragon. The choosing of this frame also relates to my averseness to the Hollywood technique. American filmmaking convention advocates for a standard 16:9 widescreen format. This format widens the frame to show expansiveness and figures in that space. However, I believe that this closes off the frame because of the lack of vertical dimensionality and excessive use of the horizontal, while relying on the importance of figures within the frame. The equal vertical and horizontal dimensions of the square image will give me the opportunity to show the prominence of the

Florida wilderness without over-emphasizing the horizontal expansiveness of it. It will highlight the formal elements of my film to a greater degree.

When choosing the actual vertical dimensions of my square frame, I have chosen to take a similar approach to the one Kelly Reichardt took when making the 2010 film Meek’s Cutoff. In the film, she used a 1:33:1 aspect ratio to make the connection of the view that women wearing bonnets had in the film. This aspect ratio is dynamic in the way that it portrays the relationship between the human characters and the Oregon landscape.

My Composition of Natural Landscapes

Carrying visual rhythm throughout my frame is important when considering my approach to compose the Florida wilderness through two-dimensional compositions. The pine trees in a

Florida forest are tall, stiff and rigid in the vertical lines that they convey on screen. Oak trees are more dynamic, and include many branches that spindle out of the tree, conveying a feeling of

44 psychosis. The great fields in a Florida Landscape emphasize the horizontal and produce a calming, reflective feeling that correspond with the healing aspects of the forest setting. I would like to use these qualities of the Florida wilderness to contribute to the visual rhythm of the film.

By emphasizing visual rhythm in my film through a foregrounding of the film medium’s flatness, I entice the viewer to explore the Florida wilderness just as I will be doing during the film’s production.

To support the cameras during my production and convey striking compositions, I plan to use a tripod for most of my 16mm and digital filmmaking. I have used handheld in the past when filming in the forest setting and intend to do so for my super 8 footage since the motion in the frame conveys a sense of perspective. For Legends of the Fabricated Wild, I would like to use the choice of camera equipment as a way to meditate on the forest setting. I want my viewer to focus on the compositions of my image and the density of the wilderness rather than the movement of the frame. Stabilizing a handheld camcorder is difficult, regardless of stylistic flourish. Using a tripod will allow me to stabilize the frame, which will relate to the subtlety of my visual language. While carrying the tripod into the Florida forest is challenging, it will lift some burden off my cinematography. Another important aspect of shooting outdoors is the use of focus. The density of the Florida wilderness will make capturing focus adequately a challenge.

I hope to alleviate this problem through the stabilization of the frame. It will also potentially allow me to set camera focus, which would eliminate the need for an assistant camera operator or second assistant camera operator. I can also use the tripod to experiment with the focusing in my frame. I plan to include shots that focus on the foliage of the foreground with other elements in the background blurred out, or vice versa.

During the shooting of my film, I plan to abandon traditional Hollywood coverage in favor of wide shots and extended takes that encompass the space, density and depth of the

Florida wilderness. This will relate to the spatial awareness of my film and give my viewer time to analyze the formal aspects of the frame. I plan to use an approach similar to how Jim

Jarmusch filmed Stranger than Paradise. J.J. Murphy writes in his chapter titled “The

Ambivalent Protagonist in Stranger than Paradise” collected in his book Me and You and

Memento and Fargo that Jarmusch “relies on wide-angle shots and extended takes rather than traditional shot/reverse shot setups. He never cuts into an action, and often stages actions by having characters walk into and out of the frame. Jarmusch favors objectively neutral rather than subjective shots,” (32). Relying on wide-angle shots rather than many close-ups will allow me to portray the Florida wilderness dominantly in the frame. Making the Florida wilderness a prominent element constantly in the frame would require an approach dependent on wide-angle shots. Using long takes will pair with my intention to stabilize the frame with a tripod. These extended takes will allow me to better convey a sense of meditation on the environment and provide ample time for the viewer’s eye to move through my images and activate them from the stasis of passive cinematic viewing. It will also leave my frame open for spontaneous or ubiquitous elements of the natural environment, like wind or animals, to affect my visual language.

Harnessing Natural Light

A crucial part of on-location shooting that is an important aspect of my filmmaking is the dominant role of natural light. The use of natural light cuts down on expensive lighting set-ups that will complicate a production and signifies the reality of a particular environment. Lubezki

46 relied on natural lighting in the Canadian wilderness completely during the production of The

Revenant. He states that “nothing will take the place of the complexity of nature and the lighting in nature; It is essential to make the film this way if we want to show what the character is going through,” (Silberg 13). While it is commonplace in on-location filmmaking that the positioning of the sun can be cumbersome, Lubezki uses it to his advantage. During the film’s production in exteriors, Lubezki used the sun as a backlight. The lighting that the sun creates behind the camera allows the shadows cast to generate an ambiance. A cinematographer can use all of the natural light of the sun to his/her advantage and easily set exposure. The techniques that

Lubezski uses to harness natural light in The Revenant signify ways that I can approach the production of my Legends of the Fabricated Wild. Natural lighting is important to my work. The ambience it creates in the natural environment allows me to portray it dynamically.

Sound Design

I would like to create an equally large aural landscape through Legends of the Fabricated

Wild. Michel Chion writes in his article “Projections of Sound on Image,” that “sound can bring the image into a temporality that it introduces entirely on its own,” (117). It can add movement to or animate an image even when it is completely static. By using the sound of the surrounding environment, I will be able to create an aural space that will animate my seemingly static images.

I intend to capture authentic ambient audio from each shooting location and link them with corresponding shots through the editing process. Having natural ambient audio that accompanies the images of each biome of the film will allow me to breathe life into many of the different locations in the Florida wilderness. Chion writes that “the addition of realistic, diegetic sound imposes on the sequence a sense of real time, like normal everyday experience, and above all, a

47 sense of time that is linear and sequential,” (120). By using sound to resemble different environments, my audiences will be able to make connections with the images placed on screen and the sounds that accompany them. This will create a link between the sound and the space conveyed on screen that will highlight a progression through and between biomes within my film.

I plan to capture sounds that make up the shooting environment with an omni-directional mic. The use of this microphone will relate to the simplicity and realism displayed in the narrative of my film and through my formal approaches. These microphones, with the right equipment, will be able to pick up subtle sounds in an environment. They will also minimize the noise generated from wind. It will capture wind in a way that accurately portrays its effect on the trees and leaves of a biome. Because they are omni-directional, the microphones will be able to build an aural space better than a shotgun or a lavalier microphone could. Using this microphone will allow me to build an aural space to accompany the visual landscape of the Florida wilderness.

While sound can animate images, it must be dynamic in order to keep the viewer engaged. Chion details this sound obstacle by stating, “A smooth and continuous sound is less

‘animating,” (118). This problem also extends to repetitive sounds. For example, “a sound with a regular pulse is more predictable and tends to create less temporal animation,” (118). With these theories of sound design in mind, I plan to listen intently to the surrounding environment for spontaneous or unexpected noises that will add character to the environment and capture them for long periods at a time. The unpredictable sounds that make up the natural environment will add aesthetic value to my production and allow my images to be dynamic. I will apply these spontaneous sounds with movements within the frame and by cueing my viewers’ attention to an

48 aspect of the visual rhythm in my frame. Through this approach to sound design, rather than including a traditional film score that emphasizes performances, I can use the sound of the natural environment to replace that and add a particular degree of authenticity.

Utilizing Kuleshov Editing Techniques to Create Spatial Representations

In her films, Reichardt uses the Kuleshov method of editing to assemble her footage. This method stems from soviet filmmaker Lev Kuleshov’s experiments that involved assembling disparate and unconnected footage from different films and showing the assembled cut to students. “As a result of being assembled together, audiences were said to have linked the two separate sets (the actor and the other scenes), possibly projecting their own reactions toward the food, the woman, and the dead body onto the actor’s face,” (Geuens 230). In Old Joy, Kelly

Reichardt uses this editing technique to link footage of the characters walking in disparate environments together. She does this to create a three-dimensional representation of the space of her film and allow the viewer to map out the progress of the main characters from biome-to- biome. For my thesis film, I would like to use this method to construct a space for my viewer.

The Kuleshov method will allow me to use the open frame and visual rhythm of it to my advantage. By linking images together, I can connect the rhythm of a frame with the frame that follows to create a sequential progression. This technique will allow me to construct the space of the Florida environment where my film will be operating and link disparate spaces. It will generate interest in my audience to participate in the building of the space through my edit.

Martine Joly and Marc Nicolas, who study the Kuleshov method through their critical article state, “as soon as two shots are juxtaposed one next to the other, there is an irresistible urge to interpret and narrativize the connection,” (“Kuleshov: de l’ experience à l’ effect”). The

49 narratization through editing will make my viewers active participants in the frame. I hope that they will strive to uncover and construct the story within the Florida wilderness. This technique will also force me to dictate my editing technique on the space within the frame rather than conventional methods of coverage. I hope that this technique, because of my reliance on space, will lead to a greater spatial awareness in my film and allow for an accurate representation of the natural Florida landscape.

Reflection on Developing my Body of Work

Contextualizing Legends of the Fabricated Wild as a body of work of experimental short films rather than one feature-length essay film was a decision made to situate my films within the experimental modality and heighten their craft. As a feature-length collection of short pieces,

Legends of the Fabricated Wild struggled to sustain interest from myself and a test audience.

Cutting it to a mid-length point allowed me to create a film including my strongest work. I was able to attune its progression into a shorter and more digestible assembly. I completed at least 33 unique versions of Legends of the Fabricated Wild as a mid-length film. This is a great deal of turnover that would have been lost had the project been feature-length.

Crucially, repositioning Legends of the Fabricated Wild in this context allowed me to create other films independent, but stylistically reminiscent of my thesis film, to develop my knowledge of experimental cinema and understand techniques. Both of my body of work films were made with repositioned sections of Legends of the Fabricated Wild. Voice-Destroy was conceptualized for me to experiment with sound and imagery. Self-Portrait: Impermanence allowed me to reframe a unique experiment with analog film technology to learn and understand successful experimental editing techniques. The knowledge of filmmaking that I have applied to

Legends of the Fabricated Wild would not have been found without the experience of creating

Voice-Destroy and Self-Portrait: Impermanence. The experience allowed me to create and develop a sustainable filmmaking practice for a future post-graduate school.

It is important to address the division of labor on my body of work. On many feature- length narrative or documentary projects, there is typically a crew hired or outside resources approached to help work on the film. In this sense, the filmmaker serves in a managerial role to provide checks and balances on the film production and oversee crew positions. This was a position that I experienced when making a narrative short film. I felt detached from the positions that contributed to the film on a fundamental level and wanted to engage with the medium upon entering the program. For all four of the works, I was the sole filmmaker and took on all of the crew positions typically reserved for other members (cinematographer, editor, sound designer, producer etc.). There was an intense, but fulfilling rigor involved throughout the production of the films included in my body of work. It allowed me to learn and understand the responsibilities of all of these practices as well as execute them with skill. There is no question that the rigor required for this body of work is equal to or greater than that of typical feature-length projects.

The quality of my films achieved through this process is comparable to the definition of a feature in experimental filmmaking terms.

Most importantly, situating Legends of the Fabricated Wild as a body of work also positioned me for a successful career as an experimental filmmaker. When developing my business plan and researching film festivals, I noticed that many experimental film festivals would not accept films at a feature-length runtime. Some would not accept submissions of projects that were longer than 15 minutes. If I wanted to succeed as an experimental filmmaker and receive programming for my films at national and international film festivals, I had to

51 consider my films as a programmer. A 30-45-minute experimental landscape film would have greater obstacles stacked against it than a precise 15-minute film. Creating this body of work also granted me with two other professional-quality films to submit to film festivals. Self-

Portrait: Impermanence was recently accepted into the 2019 Florida Film Festival’s “New

Visions of the Avant-Garde” program. The film will be screened with contemporary experimental films from around the world. This is a tremendous honor that I would not have considered without the experience of creating a body of work.

Before entering the program, I had only one professional-quality short film that I had made as a filmmaker. Upon graduation, I will have eight more films (seven single-channel films, one installation) that I could learn from to develop my craft. This body of work also proves that I have a great deal of experience as an experimental filmmaker making many different kinds of films. I am grateful to my thesis chairs Lisa Danker and Kate Shults for allowing me to consider

Legends of the Fabricated Wild within this context and for my committee’s support of this modality. Framing Legends of the Fabricated Wild as a body of work has undoubtedly made me a nuanced experimental filmmaker and prepared me for a successful career continuing to develop my practice.

Conclusion

Kelly Richardt filmed Old Joy on a $30,000 budget. She shot on super 16 mm film and an Aaton A-Minima camera. I believe that by harnessing the advantages of the micro-budget model, I can cut my budget to a fraction of the cost, $5,000. This budget will allow me to be flexible with my filmmaking and create a film that is unique to my artisanal approach and thoughts on the Florida wilderness. It will also force me to make the natural Florida landscape a

52 prominent aspect of my film, which relates to the importance that it has served in my life.

Because of this, I would like the conditions and elements of the Florida wilderness to dictate the production and framing of my thesis film. This will allow me to construct a space through cinematic language. I would like to present the space of the Florida wilderness in a way that enables my viewer to discover its unique aspects. Incorporating the natural landscapes a prominent aspect in all phases of my film’s production will allow me to foreground its interaction with humans and communicate its importance to the world’s ecology.

Location Lists

Location Address # of Shoots

1. Orlando Wetlands Park 25155 Wheeler Rd, Christmas, FL 32709 10

2. Wekiwa Springs State Park 1800 Wekiwa Cir, Apopka, FL 32712 8

3. Econ River Wilderness Area 3795 Old Lockwood Rd, Oviedo, FL 32765 6

4. Fort Christmas 1300 N Fort Christmas Rd, Christmas, FL 32709 6

4. Black Hammock Wilderness Area 3276 Howard Ave, Oviedo, FL 32765 3

5. Safety Harbor 3272 San Bernadino St. Clearwater, FL 33759 3

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area 25155 Wheeler Rd, Christmas, FL 32709 3

10. SR 50 Boat Ramp 28500 E Colonial Dr, Christmas, FL 32709 3

14. Tosohatchee 3365 Taylor Creek Rd, Christmas, FL 32709 3

8. Arboretum at UCF 110 Apollo Cir, Orlando, FL 32816 1

9. Arcadia 76 SW Grove St., Arcadia, FL 1

11. Hontoon Island State Park 2309 River Ridge Rd, DeLand, FL 32720 1

12. Lake Jesup Wilderness Area 5951 Sanford Ave, Sanford, FL 32773 1

13. Ocala National Forest (Yearling Trail) FL-19, Fort McCoy, FL 32134 1

15. Savage Christmas Creek Preserve NW Christmas Rd, Christmas, FL 32709 1

Total: 51

Tentative Shooting Schedule

Objective: Plan to shoot one roll of Super 8 film, and/or 16 mm and digital camcorder footage when applicable, twice a week for six weeks. Any additional footage will be shot in the weeks following. Schedule subject to change due to weather, location availability and/or other commitments. Off days during the week will be spent writing, editing and/or planning for shooting days.

Week of May 6

 Since a production blackout is in effect during this time, the week will be used to plan for

shooting days, fill out equipment requisition forms and write.

Week of May 13

Check out Equipment: Monday, May 14 @ UCF Film Equipment Room

Shoot #1: Tuesday, May 15, @ Orlando Wetlands Park

Shoot #2: Thursday, May 17, @ Wekiwa Springs State Park

Week of May 20

Shoot #3: Tuesday, May 22, @ Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings State Park

Shoot #4: Thursday, May 24, @ Econ River Wilderness Area

Week of May 27

Shoot #5: Tuesday, May 29, @ Ocala National Forest

Shoot #6: Thursday, May 31, @ Tosohatchee Wilderness Management Area

Week of June 3

Shoot #7: Tuesday, June 5, @ Hontoon Island State Park

Shoot #8: Thursday, June 7, @ Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

Week of June 10

Shoot #9: Tuesday, June 12, @ Orlando Wetlands Park

Shoot #10: Thursday, June 14, @ Iron Bridge Water Reclamation Facility

Week of June 17

Shoot #11: Tuesday, June 19, @ Fort Christmas Historical Park

Shoot #12: Thursday, June 21, @ Black Hammock Wilderness Area

Week of June 24

 Week reserved for pickups or if shooting days are delayed.

Week of July 1

Check in Film Equipment

Check out Sound Equipment

Send film to Cinelab and/or Color Lab for processing

Week of July 8

 Record sound.

Week of July 15

 Record sound.

Week of July 22

 Present at UFVA showcase.

Week of July 29

Check in Sound Equipment

Week of August 5

 Edit recently processed footage.

 Complete pick-ups (if needed).

Week of August 12

 Edit footage for sixth assembly

 Complete pick-ups (if needed).

References

Altdorfer, Altbrecht. Countryside of wood with St. George fighting the dragon. 1510, oil on

parchment mounted on linden wood, Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

"Altdorfer, Albrecht." Encyclopædia Britannica, September. EBSCOhost,

.ucf.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ers&AN=89403293&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Block, Bruce. The Visual Story. 2nd ed., Focal Press, 2013.

Brakhage, Stan, director. The Machine of Eden. 1970.

Chion, Michael. “Projections of Sound on Image.” Film and Theory: An Anthology, edited by

Robert Stam and Toby Miller, Blackwell Publishers, 200, 111-124.

“Joan Didion, ‘On Keeping a Notebook’ Accessing Higher Ground, 4 Jan. 2018,

http://accessinghigherground.org/handouts2013/HTCTU%20Alt%20Format%20Manuals

/Processing%20PDF%20Sample%20Files/00%20On%20Keeping%20a%20Notebook.pd

Eisenstien, Sergei. Film Essays and a Lecture. Preaeger. 1970.

Griffin, Susan M. and William Veeder. The Art of Criticism: Henry James on the Theory and

Practice of Fiction. University of Chicago Press. 1986.

Geuens, Jean-Pierre. Film Production Theory. Albany: State University of New York, 2000.

Print.

Iñárritu, Alejandro G., director. The Revenant. Twentieth Century Fox, 2015.

Jarmusch, Jim, director. Stanger than Paradise. The Samuel Goldwyn Company, 1984.

Lopate, Phillip. “In search of the Centaur: The Essay Film.” The Threepenny Review, Winter

1992, pp. 19-22. JSTOR.

Martine, Joly & Marc Nicolas, “Koulechov: de l’experience à l’effect” Iris, Vol. 4, no.1. 1986.

Matthiessen, Peter, Shadow Country. Modern Library, 2008.

McElwee, Ross, director. Sherman’s March. 1986.

Michelitch, Jason. "Thinking at Lightspeed: The Flickering Transformations of Kelly Reichardt's

Cinema." Cineaste, vol. 42, no. 1, Winter2016, pp. 4-8. EBSCOhost,

.ucf.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fah&AN=119662614&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Murphy, J.J. “The Ambivalent Protagonist in Stranger than Paradise.” Me and You and

Memento and Fargo: How Independent Screenplays Work. Edited by J.J. Murphy.,

Continuum International Publishing Group Inc., 2007, pp. 27-45.

Ponsoldt, James. "Sound of Silence." Filmmaker: The Magazine of Independent Film, vol. 15,

no. 1, Fall2006, pp. 98-132. EBSCOhost,

.ucf.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=fah&AN=23143410&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Reichardt, Kelly, director. Meek’s Cutoff. Evenstar Films, Film Science, Harmony Productions &

Primitive Nerd, 2010.

Reichardt, Kelly, director. Old Joy. Film Science, Van Hoy Knudson Productions & Washington

Square Films, 2006.

Reichardt, Kelly, director. Wendy and Lucy. Field Guide Films, Film Science, Glass Eye Pix &

Washington Square Films, 2008.

Rich, Katey. “NYFF Exclusive Interview: Kelly Reichardt.” Cinema Blend, Oct. 2008,

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/NYFF-Exclusive-Interview-Kelly-Reichardt-

10443.html. Accessed 10 April 2017.

Schama, Simon. Landscape and Memory. Knopf. 1995.

Silberg, Jon. "The Revenant." Digital Video 23.12 (2015): 10-48. Film & Television

Literature Index. Web. 26 Jan. 2017.

Stahlschmidt, Hans Jorg. "A Dark and Damp Place: Jungian Psychology and the Germanic

Forest." Mythosphere, vol. 2, no. 1, Feb. 2000, p. 58. EBSCOhost,

direct=true&db=hus&AN=3977145&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Villain, Dominiue. L’Oeil à la camera: le cadrage au cinema. Cashiers du Cinéma editions de

l’Etoile. 1984.

CHAPTER THREE: EVIDENCE OF FINANCIAL LITERACY

Business Plan

Artist’s Statement & Objectives

Artist’s Statement

I use extended duration, subtle movement and precise compositions to provide a transcendental perspective on the natural Florida landscape. Analog images of landscapes devoid of human action are structured together in my work to meditate on the environment’s natural subtlety. I use the essayistic mode to frame protected environments in Central Florida that have a unique relationship between the artificial (human interference) and the natural, to foreground early cinema’s history with the natural environment. I primarily use small-gauge analog film to apply the texture of the film image and the qualities of the square image into my visual language.

Analog film is also used to embalm perspectives of these natural landscapes on celluloid, to preserve them from the passage of time which will eventually eradicate these landscapes through climate change or development.

60 methods to foreground the technical qualities of the medium and break from traditional viewing techniques.

Strategic Objectives

Incomplete Objectives are marked with an asterisk.

 Main Objective

o Use personal filmmaking tools to create an experimental body of work

foregrounding human interaction within the natural Florida landscape.

 Main Financial Objective

o Make a micro-budget film self-funded by donations, scholarships and grants with

a budget of $4,984.

 Specific Production Objectives

o Film with a crew of no more than three people.

o Film at least once a week during school semesters. Three times a week during

break periods.

o Film from 2017-2018. Primarily in Summer 2018

o Write script/journal entries throughout production (Summer 2017-Spring 2019).

o Assemble crew in Fall 2017-Spring 2018*.

. *Did not require crew.

o Study and practice cinematography of film and digital cameras (Fall 2017-Spring

2018).

o Purchase two rolls of Super 8 film, one 50-D color negative and one Black and

White reversal, and one 16mm roll per semester (Fall 2017-Spring 2018).

Purchase 12 rolls (Super 8 and 16mm) or more during Summer 2018.

o Have a significant assembly at the end of each semester (Fall 2017-Spring 2019).

o Table at the UCF Production Meet and Greet to find additional crew members (If

needed) (Spring 2018) *.

. * Crew was not required.

o Edit and assemble footage from Fall 2018-Spring 2019.

o Gather pick-up imagery during Fall 2018.

o Purchase and assemble archival footage/audio from Summer 2018-Fall 2018 (if

necessary) *.

. * Determined that archival audio/footage did not fit aesthetically with

work.

o Record pick-up audio of film locations in Fall 2018 and Spring 2019.

o Complete sound mix in Fall 2018 *.

. *Completed in Spring 2019.

o Have final assemblies of body of work by the end of Spring 2019 for 2020 Film

Festival Circuits.

 Specific Promotional Objectives

o Create website showcasing film portfolio in Spring 2018 *.

. *Vimeo page was used in place of website.

o Use website/vimeo page to promote Legends of the Fabricated Wild through

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in Spring 2018 *.

. Post imagery from film on social media once a week to sustain interest *.

 Tag location in post *.

o * Promotion through social media will be completed after

films are finished.

o Have an interactive website ready to go in time for funding Spring 2018*.

. *Vimeo page was used in place of website.

o Have poster and poster cards completed and printed by Spring 2019.

. Promote through personal social media pages.

o Create a marketing plan that will be implemented in Spring 2019.

o Have DVD available to purchase through website in 2020.

o Upload body of work to Vimeo after festival run in 2021.

 Specific Financial Objectives

o Complete detailed and itemized budget October 2017.

o Approach family members and friends with a copy of budget, updated business

plan and most recent assembly Winter 2017 *.

. * Did not approach family members or friends about funding for body of

work.

o Apply for grants Spring 2018.

o If funding is not achieved fully, I will self-fund whatever is left. January 2018.

o Have funding in place for Thesis Proposal defense April 2018.

 Specific Organizational Objectives

o Apply for Princess Grace, Kodak, Carole Fielding and UFVA Grants.

o Update and Revise Aesthetic and Production Literacy Reviews for my Electronic

Thesis Dissertation. Ready for Thesis proposal defense in April 2018.

Project Description

Synopsis

“Today’s depiction of Florida is tomorrow’s vision of America,” Gary M. Mormino, author, Land of Sunshine State of Dreams.

An artisanal reflection on mankind’s role within the natural Central Florida landscape through the images of a conflicted explorer.

Legends of the Fabricated Wild is an experimental landscape film critiquing humanity’s influence on the natural Central Florida landscape. Through the use of 16mm film, Super 8 film and a digital camcorder, Legends of the Fabricated Wild offers up images relating to the subjective perspective of a filmmaker obsessively examining humanity’s tendency to transform the Florida environment for imperialist desires. The filmmaker records long takes of cinematic images to characterize a space and activate the spectator.

The film will include the use of three different technologies in three separate sections relating to the emotional responses the filmmaker associates with areas in the Central Florida environment. He uses 50-D color negative Super 8 film in the opening section to create cinematic legends that are emblematic of the location filmed. This raises connections between humanity’s tendencies to mythologize a particular space in order to tame it.

The filmmaker travels to Christmas, Florida in the second section. He uses a digital camcorder to criticize the town’s manipulation of the space surrounding them for entertainment,

64 recreation and waste. This middle section incorporates a historical examination of the natural environment.

In the final section, 16mm film is utilized to break away from conventional viewing techniques. The filmmaker challenges landscape tradition by foregrounding the film medium through double exposure of the imagery and collecting the parts of a landscape within a sequence. When edited together, these images represent the breaking down of an artificial space and reconstructing the landscape. The direct intervention of the filmmaker is thus revealed to the viewer.

Project Details

Legends of the Fabricated Wild is a landscape film budgeted at $4,984. It is geared towards audiences with a passion for the natural Florida landscape and film scholars intrigued by an emerging art form. The film is an examination on a location similar to how filmmaker Chris

Marker examined the Siberian landscape in his 1957 feature-length film Letter from Siberia and the thought-provoking compositions of Peter Hutton. It’s also influenced by the youthful energy of Bill Brown’s 1994 short film Roswell. Brown’s approach to fictionalizing his journey to

Roswell is similar to how Legends of the Fabricated Wild mythologizes the natural Florida environment. Last Stop, Flamingo (2014), directed by Georg Koszulinski, is a Florida-focused feature-length essay film that characterizes regions of the state through his subjective imagery and historical information. It’s also inspired by the visual language of Kelly Reichardt’s 2006 film Old Joy.

Legends of the Fabricated Wild’s budget will be self-funded through donations, scholarships and/or research grants. Nick Twardus is the film’s sole writer and will lead the

65 film’s production as its director. As director and cinematographer of the film, Twardus will build the film’s visual language through his subjective perspective. Twardus will also be a producer on

Legends of the Fabricated Wild. He will raise the funds necessary and work towards assembling the people and materials needed in order to complete the production. When the film is complete,

Twardus will assemble and polish the film as its editor. The project will be shot in Florida. The filmmaker anticipates Legends of the Fabricated Wild to be ready for submission to film festivals no later than two years after funding is successfully completed.

Figure 13: Black-and-White landscape from Voice-Destroy. Super 8. Nick Twardus

Financing

Method of Funding

Nick Twardus is seeking $4,984 to finance the entire production budget of the experimental body of work Legends of the Fabricated Wild.

The budget will be self-funded through donations, scholarships and/or research grants.

The use of this method of funding over crowd-funding websites leads to freedom of artistic expression from the filmmaker without the fear of alienating potential backers. It will also allow for more time and money to be spent on the making of the film itself rather than through the fulfillment of backers. Also, pursuing grants relates to the filmmaker’s passion for research in an artistic field.

If the money needed to fulfill the budget is not obtained through self-funded means, it will be adjusted and funded through the Kickstarter crowd-funding service. In this sense, a

Kickstarter campaign will serve as a contingency. The use of Kickstarter over other crowd- funding websites leads to lesser costs to the website that must be paid after funding is complete, only five percent of total pledges. Also, the all-or-nothing philosophy of Kickstarter over other sites encourages donations from potential backers.

According to the “About us” page on Kickstarter, it is their mission “to bring creative projects to life.” They do this by giving “every artist, filmmaker, designer, developer, and creator on Kickstarter complete creative control over their work — and the opportunity to share it with a vibrant community of backers.” This provides a potential outlet for an emerging filmmaking form to succeed.

Also, because of the film’s minimal budget, it has a greater chance for success on the platform. Of all the film projects ever funded through Kickstarter, 56.3% of projects that request

$10,000 dollars or less achieve their goal according to the “Kickstarter Stats” webpage. In addition, the site’s average amount pledged for a film is $6,033.53. Because Legends of the

Fabricated Wild’s budget is on the lesser side of that average, it will have a greater chance to succeed on the platform.

Film Festival Research

Below are the results of the research conducted on film festivals that could appeal to

Legends of the Fabricated Wild’s demographic. The research collects the film festivals in no particular order and includes sufficient information that will aid the filmmaker when the film is complete. Nick Twardus will request waivers when approaching submission to film festivals.

Legends of the Fabricated Wild Festival Targets

Estimated time of completion: May 2019

1. Florida Film Festival

a. Basic info: The festival, in its 26th year, premieres the best in independent cinema.

It includes programs for Florida films and student work.

b. Deadline: Early-bird Documentary shorts deadline of October 19.

c. Costs: $30

d. Justification: It’s the premier Florida festival and has a reputation as one of the

best in the country. Its pedigree as an Oscar-qualifying festival brings filmmakers

from around the world to the Enzian Theater in Maitland. Self-Portrait:

Impermanence will be screening there as part of the “New Visions of the Avant-

Garde” program in 2019. Being an alumnus will improve my chances of entry. It

also includes a focus on Documentary films. If my film screened here, it would be

the best-case scenario.

2. Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

a. Basic info: The festival is North America’s largest documentary showcase. It

screens a selection of over 200 films from Canada and around the world. Can

submit rough cuts to the festival.

b. Deadline: Early documentary short deadline of November 15.

c. Cost: $25.

d. Justification: It’s the largest documentary festival in the continent with over 200

films programmed each year. Surely within that program there will be some

flavor for an essayistic/experimental documentary.

3. National Wild & Scenic Film Festival

a. Basic info: The festival, produced by the South Yuba River Citizens League, is

currently in its 16th year of operation. It resides in Nevada City, California. This

year’s program includes 114 films focusing on nature and conservation. It’s

considered the largest festival in the genre.

b. Deadline: Student-level early-bird deadline of June 30.

c. Cost: $40

d. Justification: It’s one of the largest film festivals in the country that speaks to my

particular film’s niche. The 2017 program includes films from sub-genres of the

environmental films like adventure, land preservation, wildlife, activism and

environmental justice that my film speaks to. It will also illuminate the festival to

the history of the natural Florida environment.

4. Visions Du Réel

a. Basic info: An international film festival based out of Switzerland. A majority of

its films are world or international premieres. Last year’s program included 179

films from 55 different countries. It has a focus on traditional, experimental and

essayistic documentaries. Also, the festival has an out-of-competition program for

student films.

b. Deadline: Early submission deadline is October 23.

c. Cost: 20 CHF, or around $20.36 us dollars.

d. Justification: its appeal to experimental and essayistic documentarians inspires me

the most. The festival’s reliance on international or world premieres also provides

me with an opportunity to premiere my film internationally there. A potential

downside is that the festival had over 40,500 applicants last year.

5. DOC NYC

a. Basic info: DOC NYC is an academy-qualifying festival that has become

America’s largest film festival for documentaries. In 2016, the festival had over

200 films and events. The festival is now entering its seventh year.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of March 3.

c. Cost: $35

d. Justification: The festival cultivates films that are expanding the field of

documentary storytelling, like through memoir or history. It is also interested in

films that use emerging forms or mediums to propel the mode in a new direction.

The festival screened Sarah Polley’s 2012 film Stories we Tell, considered by

many to be a blueprint for the modern essay film.

6. Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival

a. Basic info: Now in its 26th year, the festival operates out of Hot Spring national

park in Arkansas. It is the oldest non-fiction festival in North America and looks

for films that innovate. It selects around 100 films a year.

b. Deadline: Early bird deadline of February 15.

c. Cost: $40

d. Justification: The festival’s adherence to innovation bodes nicely for my thesis

film. Also, because of its location in a national park, my film may have a greater

chance of acceptance. However, the program has a limited selection of

submission categories. Without a student sidebar, my film may have an uphill

climb.

7. Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

a. Basic info: The film festival operates out of Durham, North Carolina and is

currently in its 21st year. It programs nearly 100 films from established and

emerging filmmakers.

b. Deadline: Regular deadline of October 31

c. Cost: $40, discount to $35

d. Justification: It’s proximity in the Southeast region of the country may give my

film a leg up over others. Also, since it is an established festival, it will bolster my

film’s resume. In addition, the festival has competition and out-of-competition

sections.

8. Sarasota Film Festival

a. Basic info: A film festival, based out of Sarasota, FL, that is geared towards

emerging independent voices. It programs over 100 feature length films.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of October 2 (Sarasota and Florida filmmakers

category).

c. Cost: Student discount of $15.

d. Justification: It includes a program specifically for Florida filmmakers, which will

up my chances of admission. With a student ID, I would save $10 on the entry

fee. Also, the festival caters toward films with a natural focus. In 2006, Kelly

Reichardt’s Old Joy screened at the festival.

9. Indie Grits Festival

a. Basic info: The festival, in its 12th year, is based out of the Nickelodeon theatre in

South Carolina. It books films that are primarily from the southeast. It also

includes a section dedicated to experimental film.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of October 6.

c. Cost: $20

d. Justification: The festival caters to filmmakers with films originating out of the

southeastern region of the country. Because of this location-based importance, I

believe my film will have a strong case for the festival. It has also screened

essayistic works in the past.

10. Montclair Film Festival

a. Basic info: A New Jersey-based film festival that connects filmmakers from

around the world with artists from the Northeast.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of November 24.

c. Cost: $25

d. Justification: The festival is based out of Montclair, close by to where my parents

and a majority of my immediate family grew up. It includes a dedicated section of

student films made at the university-level outside of New Jersey that will appeal

to my thesis work.

11. Gasparilla International Film Festival

a. Basic info: The festival, run by the Tampa Film Institute, strives to provide

support for the Tampa and Florida film industry.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of October 31.

c. Cost: $25

d. Justification: I have family in the Clearwater/Tampa area and part of my thesis

film content is shot in this area. However, there appears to be a world premiere

requirement for all Florida films.

12. Fort Myers Film Festival

a. Basic info: The festival, now in its 10th year, caters to independent and creative

films. Its documentaries category showcases films that centered on the natural

environment. The festival also includes student works and local films.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of June 9.

c. Costs: Student discount of $5.

d. Justification: I have shown at the festival previously and personally know the

festival director. The festival screened Georg Koslunzski’s Last Stop, Flamingo, a

feature-length location-based essay film about Florida, in a past program.

13. Fort Myers Beach Film Festival

a. Basic info: The film festival showcases the best in cinematic art against the

backdrop of Fort Myers Beach. Films are screened outside on a projector in the

Florida sand.

b. Deadline: Early-bird student deadline of January 31.

c. Cost: $10

d. Justification: I have had work screen at the festival before. The festival’s reliance

on films shot in Florida by Florida filmmakers also strengthens my case. The

exhibition venue being the beach plays nicely into the content of my film.

14. Tampa Bay Underground Film Festival

a. Basic info: The festival, in its fourth year, specializes in giving attention to

independent micro-budget filmmaking. Last year, the program included 155 films

across all-genres, including experimental and essay.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of May 19

c. Cost: $15

d. Justification: The festival’s all-genre inclusivity will strengthen my film’s chances

of admission. The program also includes a great number of films and a special

section for Florida films.

15. Cinema Verde Environmental Film and Arts Festival

a. Basic info: The film festival works to showcase films that provide environmental

education and raise awareness to important issues and improve quality of life. The

festival is now in its seventh year and is based out of Gainesville.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of July 27.

c. Cost: $35; Discount: $30

d. Justification: The festival’s reliance on films produced in the Florida environment

will help my film nicely. However, the festival’s requirement that films provide

and explain solutions to issues through its content is disruptive. Providing a

general solution to a complex problem is unrealistic and uninteresting. It certainly

doesn’t bode well for my essay film mode.

16. International Wildlife Film Festival

a. Basic info: The festival celebrates emerging filmmakers and films that explore the

future of wildlife and environmental filmmaking. It was the first juried wildlife

film festival and is now in its 40th year. It’s based out of Missoula, Montana.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of November 18

c. Costs: $80, Discount: $75

d. Justification: The film festival includes a diverse selection of categories, including

one for university students, all within the wildlife/environmental subgenre.

However, the entry fee is far steeper than the most expensive film festivals that I

have researched.

17. Anchorage International Film Festival

a. Basic info: The film festival, which runs in December, prides itself over “films

worth freezing for.”

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of June 16

c. Costs: $30

d. Justification: I believe that my essay film shot in Florida, could be seen as fresh

flavor in the frigid landscapes of Alaska.

18. Film and Poetry Symposium

a. Basic info: The film festival, in its first year, runs in April and has a focus on

Essay and Experimental film.

b. Deadline: December 31

c. Costs: $18

d. Justification: Since the film festival has a category specifically dedicated to mid-

length cinematic essays, I believe that my film could succeed. Also, with a

community of experimental and essayistic filmmakers, I could get great

networking experience and advice.

19. Black Maria Film Festival

a. Basic info: The film festival has been running for 37 years out of New Jersey. The

festival, named after Thomas Edison’s film studio, seeks films that foreground the

human condition and environmental issues.

b. Deadline: Early-bird deadline of July 15

c. Costs: $30

d. Justification: The festival’s reliance on experimental works and on films

expressing the human condition bodes nicely for my thesis film.

20. Athens International Film + Video Festival

a. Basic info: The festival is in its 45th year and celebrates works that are considered

underground. In their experimental program, they accept films that have a

personal involvement and sense of innovation.

b. Deadline: Early bird deadline of October 1

c. Costs: $35, discount: $30

d. Justification: Since my thesis film has formal considerations in the content of the

film and includes a strong personal viewpoint, it will have a great chance of

getting into this festival.

21. Experiments in Cinema

a. Basic info: Experiments in Cinema celebrates international cinematic

experimentation and operates out of New Mexico. They seek work that questions

authority, complicates tradition and experiments with form and content.

b. Deadline: November 1

c. Costs: $25

d. Justification: The film festival seeks film that challenge traditions of narrative,

experimental and documentary films. Because my film is a subversion of

narrative and documentary techniques, it will have a good chance of showing.

22. Atlanta Film Festival

a. Basic info: Atlanta film festival is one of the largest festivals in the country. It

contains a category for experimental shorts.

b. Deadline: Hella early bird deadline of May 31

c. Costs: $0

d. Justification: The film festival accepts experimental films that that have a

conscious and referential use of the medium. The Super 8 sections of my film

allow me to apply the form of the film strip to the content of the overall essay

film. Because of this relationship, the Atlanta Film Festival may find my film

desirable.

Voice-Destroy and Self-Portrait: Impermanence Festival Targets

Time of completion: May 2018; March 2019

Interference "Freedom of Form" Film Festival (Poland):

Entry Fee: FREE?

Deadline: 11/30/18

Spectral Film Festival (Wisconsin):

Entry Fee: FREE

Deadline: 1/6/19

Fracto Film Festival (Berlin, Germany):

Entry Fee: 5 Euros ~ $6.30

Deadline: 2/1/19

Videoex International and Swiss Competition (Switzerland):

Entry Fee: FREE

Deadline: 2/4/19

Experimental Film Festival Process (Latvia):

Entry Fee: Free??

Deadline: 2/21/19

Slow Short Film Festival (UK):

Entry Fee: $8

Deadline: 2/28/19

Miniart Video Festival (Budapest):

Entry Fee: ??

Deadline: 3/1/19

Proceso de Error (Chile):

Entry Fee: FREE

Deadline: 3/1/19

Moscow International Film Festival:

Entry Fee: $10

Deadline: 3/15/19

Cairo Video Festival:

Entry Fee: $15

Deadline: 3/15/19

Hazel Eye Online Film Festival (Tennessee):

Entry Fee: FREE

Deadline: 3/26/19

West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival:

Entry Fee: $5

Deadline: 3/29/19

Bogota Experimental Film Festival (Columbia):

Entry Fee: $4

Deadline: 3/31/19

Braziers Mini Indie Festival (UK):

Entry Fee: $7

Deadline: 3/31/19

Festival Erca (Brazil):

Entry Fee: $5

Deadline: 3/31/19

At the Fringe International Film Festival (Sweden):

Entry Fee: $10

Deadline: 3/31/19

Laterale Film Festival (Cosenza, Italy):

Entry Fee: $8

Deadline: 3/31/19

Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (UK):

Entry Fee: 15 Euros

Deadline: 4/5/19

Magmart Festival (Online??Italy??):

Entry Fee: FREE

Deadline: 4/7/19

Horn Experimental Film Festival (Jerusalem):

Entry Fee: $10

Deadline: 5/1/19

25 FPS Festival (Croatia):

Entry Fee: FREE

Deadline: 5/31/19

WNDX Film Festival (Canada):

Entry Fee: FREE

Deadline: 6/1/19

References

“About us.” Kickstarter, https://www.kickstarter.com/about?ref=global-footer. Accessed 15

October 2016.

“Kickstarter Stats.” Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/help/stats?ref=global-footer.

Accessed 18 October 2016.

APPENDIX A: BUDGET

APPENDIX B: EQUIPMENT ROOM FORMS AND LIST OF EQUIPMENT USED

APPENDIX C: FLICKERING LANDSCAPE CONFERNECE ABSTRACT

“Legends of the Fabricated Wild”: Experimental Images of Human Interaction within a Changing Natural Florida Landscape

Abstract

Legends of the Fabricated Wild is a work-in-progress essay/landscape film to be completed in accordance with requirements for UCF’s Film MFA degree. The film explores the intersections between the natural and artificial within the Florida wilderness through the use of small-gauge film-making technology. I harness the essay film mode to investigate my place within the heavily-contested landscape and preserve these images from the passage of time on celluloid. I use extended duration, wide shots and subtle movement to illustrate a meditative perspective when viewing the natural Florida landscape. I compose images that foreground the natural Florida landscape in the frame and contrast expansiveness with fragmentation to challenge traditional landscape viewing techniques. I create striking visual details using the multi-form capabilities of the square image outlined by Sergei Eisenstein.

For fulfillment of thesis requirements, Legends of the Fabricated Wild will be accompanied by two experimental landscape films. Voice-Destroy examines the relationship between voice and image. Self-Portrait: Impermanence is a nearly-complete short film examining impermanence in the natural Florida Landscape through the juxtaposition of images foregrounding human interaction with abstract sections of rapid movement. Combined, these films foreground the temporality of human interaction within the natural Florida Landscape.

Links

Legends of the Fabricated Wild (Expected May 2019-75% Complete): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLaXY7yjVms

Self-Portrait: Impermanence (Expected December 2018-Nearly Complete): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfHSxXcn8tY

Voice-Destroy (May 2018): https://vimeo.com/272119188

Contact Information

Nicholas A. Twardus

Entrepreneurial Digital Cinema MFA Candidate at UCF

(239) 822-8459 [email protected]

APPENDIX D: KEEP YOUR DISTANCE INSTALLATION PITCH

APPENDIX E: KEEP YOUR DISTANCE DOCUMENTATION

100

101

102

103

104

APPENDIX F: SHOT LISTS

105

106

107

108

109

110

111

112

113

114

115

116

117

118

119

120

121

122

APPENDIX G: VISUAL DOCUMENTS

123

Visual Document for Legends of the Fabricated Wild (Film Dates)

Classifications: 1. Film vs. Digital; 2. Handheld vs. Tripod; 3. Color vs. Black & White ; 4. Meditation vs. Mortality vs. Absurdity; 5. Square Frame vs. 16:9; 6. Content; 7. Location

“Arcadia Test Shoot”

Film date: May 20, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Rectangular Shapes, Sky, Wide Landscapes, Shaky Camera

7. Arcadia

“Arboretum Test Shoot”

Film date: May 23, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Morality

5. 16: 9

6. Blackened trees; Human influence; Death; Brown

7. UCF Arboretum

“In Transit Test Shoot”

Film Date: June 6, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

124

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Movement; Cows; Fields; Positive space

7. Christmas

“Tosohatchee Test Shoot”

Film Date: June 6, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Mortality

5. 16:9

6. Curved Angles, Oak Hammock, Visceral Breaks, Green

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“SR-50 Boat Ramp Test Shoot”

Film Date: June, 7, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Sky, Flatness, Field, Water Movement

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“Econ River Test Shoot”

125

Film Date: June 7, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Mortality

5. 16:9

6. Approaching Storm; Bleeding out of image; Conflict in Sky; Deep depth of field

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“Orlando Wetlands Park Test Shoot”

Film Date: June 10, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Reflections; New perspective on Familiar Park; Brown vs. Green; Dynamic Compositions

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Black Hammock Test Shoot”

Film Date: June 14, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Morality

5. 16:9

126

6. Green; Little Light; Positive Space filling frame; White shell ground

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Lake Jesup Test Shoot”

Film Date: June 17, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Shades of Green; Tall Grass; Water; Cloud movement

7. Lake Jesup Wilderness Area

“The Legend of the Walking Catfish”

Film date: June 27, 2017

1: Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Frame

127

6. Catfish, Sand, Brown, Water

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Wild Dog at Black Hammock”

Film date: June 28, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square frame

6. Palm frons, clouds, pine trees, noticeable grain

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Wekiwa Springs Test Shoot”

Film Date: July 3, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

128

6. Pockets of Blue Sky; Contrast of Blue vs. Green; Pastoral imagry; Positive Space

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

“A Manufactured Eden”

Film date: October 23, 2017

1. Digital

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Wetlands, Pipes, Green, Water flowing

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Specters/Florida After Death”

Film date: October 30, 2017

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Black & White

4. Morality

129

5. Square Frame

6. White image, Black vertical lines, Noticeable grain, wheat-like grass

7. Ocala National Forest

“Winter at Wekiwa”

Film Date: December 13, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Catfish, Blue, Emptiness/Loneliness, Circles

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

“The Lake Pickett Land Battle”

Film Date: January 26, 2017

1. Film

130

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Visible Grain; Water pools; Human Elements; Sand

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“Light Play in Black and White”

Film Date: February 9, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Morality

5. Square Image

6. Noticeable grain; Black contrast; Dirt; Failure

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

“Letter from Fort Christmas”

Film Date: February 23, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Brown; Structures; Period Piece; Anti-Illusionism

7. Fort Christmas Historical Park

131

“Empty Vistas (x2)”

Film Date: February 26, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Blue; Pipes; Green; Sparkling water

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Airboat Rivalry along the St. John’s River”

Film Date: March 2, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Period Piece; Airboats; Defamiliarized Landscape; Linear Composition

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“The Legend of Swampy, the World’s largest Alligator”

Film Date: March 5, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

132

5. Square Image

6. Man-made; Close-Ups; Water; Shadows

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“Self Portrait #1: Impermanence”

Film Date: March 12, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Vertical Lines, Noticeable Grain, Wind, Duration

7. Savage/Christmas Creek Preserve

“The Optical Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Orlando Wetlands Park”

Film Date: March 14, 2018

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Linear Composition; Green; Blue; Abstraction

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

Visual Document for Legends of the Fabricated Wild-1

Classifications: 1. Film vs. Digital; 2. Handheld vs. Tripod; 3. Color vs. Black & White ; 4. Meditation vs. Morality vs. Absurdity; 5. Square Frame vs. 16:9; 6. Content; 7. Location

“The Legend of the Walking Catfish”

133

Film date: June 27, 2017

1: Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Frame

6. Catfish, Sand, Brown, Water

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Wild Dog at Black Hammock”

Film date: June 28, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

134

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square frame

6. Palm frons, clouds, pine trees, noticeable grain

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Specters/Florida After Death”

Film date: October 30, 2017

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square Frame

6. White image, Black vertical lines, Noticeable grain, wheat-like grass

7. Ocala National Forest

“The Lake Pickett Land Battle”

Film Date: January 26, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Visible Grain; Water pools; Human Elements; Sand

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“Light Play in Black and White”

135

Film Date: February 9, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Morality

5. Square Image

6. Noticeable grain; Black contrast; Dirt; Failure

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

“Letter from Fort Christmas”

Film Date: February 23, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Brown; Structures; Period Piece; Anti-Illusionism

7. Fort Christmas Historical Park

“Empty Vistas (x2)”

Film Date: February 26, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

136

6. Blue; Pipes; Green; Sparkling water

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Airboat Rivalry along the St. John’s River”

Film Date: March 2, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Period Piece; Airboats; Defamiliarized Landscape; Linear Composition

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“The Legend of Swampy, the World’s largest Alligator”

Film Date: March 5, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Man-made; Close-Ups; Water; Shadows

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“Self Portrait #1: Impermanence”

Film Date: March 12, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

137

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Vertical Lines, Noticeable Grain, Wind, Duration

7. Savage/Christmas Creek Preserve

“The Optical Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Orlando Wetlands Park”

Film Date: March 14, 2018

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Linear Composition; Green; Blue; Abstraction

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“A Manufactured Eden”

Film date: October 23, 2017

1. Digital

138

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Wetlands, Pipes, Green, Water flowing

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Winter at Wekiwa”

Film Date: December 13, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Catfish, Blue, Emptiness/Loneliness, Circles

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

139

Visual Document for Legends of the Fabricated Wild-2

Classifications: 1. Film vs. Digital; 2. Handheld vs. Tripod; 3. Color vs. Black & White ; 4. Meditation vs. Morality vs. Absurdity; 5. Square Frame vs. 16:9; 6. Content; 7. Location

“The Legend of the Walking Catfish”

Film date: June 27, 2017

1: Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Frame

6. Catfish, Sand, Brown, Water

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Wild Dog at Black Hammock”

140

Film date: June 28, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square frame

6. Palm frons, clouds, pine trees, noticeable grain

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Winter at Wekiwa”

141

Film Date: December 13, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Catfish, Blue, Emptiness/Loneliness, Circles

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

“The Lake Pickett Land Battle”

Film Date: January 26, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Visible Grain; Water pools; Human Elements; Sand

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“Light Play in Black and White”

Film Date: February 9, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Morality

5. Square Image

142

6. Noticeable grain; Black contrast; Dirt; Failure

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

“Letter from Fort Christmas”

Film Date: February 23, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Brown; Structures; Period Piece; Anti-Illusionism

7. Fort Christmas Historical Park

“Empty Vistas (x2)”

Film Date: February 26, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Blue; Pipes; Green; Sparkling water

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Airboat Rivalry along the St. John’s River”

Film Date: March 2, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

143

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Period Piece; Airboats; Defamiliarized Landscape; Linear Composition

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“The Legend of Swampy, the World’s largest Alligator”

Film Date: March 5, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Man-made; Close-Ups; Water; Shadows

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“Self Portrait #1: Impermanence”

Film Date: March 12, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Vertical Lines, Noticeable Grain, Wind, Duration

7. Savage/Christmas Creek Preserve

“A Manufactured Eden”

144

Film date: October 23, 2017

1. Digital

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Wetlands, Pipes, Green, Water flowing

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Specters/Florida After Death”

Film date: October 30, 2017

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square Frame

6. White image, Black vertical lines, Noticeable grain, wheat-like grass

7. Ocala National Forest

145

“The Optical Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Orlando Wetlands Park”

Film Date: March 14, 2018

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Linear Composition; Green; Blue; Abstraction

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

Visual Document for Legends of the Fabricated Wild-3

Classifications: 1. Film vs. Digital; 2. Handheld vs. Tripod; 3. Color vs. Black & White ; 4. Meditation vs. Morality vs. Absurdity; 5. Square Frame vs. 16:9; 6. Content; 7. Location

“The Legend of the Walking Catfish”

Film date: June 27, 2017

1: Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

146

5. Square Frame

6. Catfish, Sand, Brown, Water

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“A Manufactured Eden”

Film date: October 23, 2017

1. Digital

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Wetlands, Pipes, Green, Water flowing

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Winter at Wekiwa”

147

Film Date: December 13, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Catfish, Blue, Emptiness/Loneliness, Circles

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

“Letter from Fort Christmas”

Film Date: February 23, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

148

6. Brown; Structures; Period Piece; Anti-Illusionism

7. Fort Christmas Historical Park

“Empty Vistas (x2)”

Film Date: February 26, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Blue; Pipes; Green; Sparkling water

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Legend of Swampy, the World’s largest Alligator”

Film Date: March 5, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Man-made; Close-Ups; Water; Shadows

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“The Optical Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Orlando Wetlands Park”

Film Date: March 14, 2018

1. Film

2. Tripod

149

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Linear Composition; Green; Blue; Abstraction

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Wild Dog at Black Hammock”

Film date: June 28, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square frame

6. Palm frons, clouds, pine trees, noticeable grain

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Specters/Florida After Death”

Film date: October 30, 2017

1. Film

2. Tripod

150

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square Frame

6. White image, Black vertical lines, Noticeable grain, wheat-like grass

7. Ocala National Forest

“The Lake Pickett Land Battle”

Film Date: January 26, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Visible Grain; Water pools; Human Elements; Sand

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“Light Play in Black and White”

Film Date: February 9, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Morality

5. Square Image

6. Noticeable grain; Black contrast; Dirt; Failure

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

“The Airboat Rivalry along the St. John’s River”

151

Film Date: March 2, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Period Piece; Airboats; Defamiliarized Landscape; Linear Composition

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“Self Portrait #1: Impermanence”

Film Date: March 12, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Vertical Lines, Noticeable Grain, Wind, Duration

7. Savage/Christmas Creek Preserve

Visual Document for Legends of the Fabricated Wild-4

Classifications: 1. Film vs. Digital; 2. Handheld vs. Tripod; 3. Color vs. Black & White ; 4. Meditation vs. Morality vs. Absurdity; 5. Square Frame vs. 16:9; 6. Content; 7. Location

“The Legend of the Walking Catfish”

152

Film date: June 27, 2017

1: Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Frame

6. Catfish, Sand, Brown, Water

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“Letter from Fort Christmas”

Film Date: February 23, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Brown; Structures; Period Piece; Anti-Illusionism

7. Fort Christmas Historical Park

“Empty Vistas (x2)”

153

Film Date: February 26, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Blue; Pipes; Green; Sparkling water

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Legend of Swampy, the World’s largest Alligator”

Film Date: March 5, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Man-made; Close-Ups; Water; Shadows

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“The Wild Dog at Black Hammock”

154

Film date: June 28, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square frame

6. Palm frons, clouds, pine trees, noticeable grain

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Specters/Florida After Death”

Film date: October 30, 2017

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square Frame

6. White image, Black vertical lines, Noticeable grain, wheat-like grass

7. Ocala National Forest

“Light Play in Black and White”

Film Date: February 9, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Morality

5. Square Image

155

6. Noticeable grain; Black contrast; Dirt; Failure

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

“A Manufactured Eden”

Film date: October 23, 2017

1. Digital

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Wetlands, Pipes, Green, Water flowing

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Winter at Wekiwa”

156

Film Date: December 13, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Catfish, Blue, Emptiness/Loneliness, Circles

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

“The Lake Pickett Land Battle”

Film Date: January 26, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

157

6. Visible Grain; Water pools; Human Elements; Sand

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Airboat Rivalry along the St. John’s River”

Film Date: March 2, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Period Piece; Airboats; Defamiliarized Landscape; Linear Composition

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“Self Portrait #1: Impermanence”

Film Date: March 12, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Vertical Lines, Noticeable Grain, Wind, Duration

7. Savage/Christmas Creek Preserve

“The Optical Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Orlando Wetlands Park”

Film Date: March 14, 2018

1. Film

2. Tripod

158

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Linear Composition; Green; Blue; Abstraction

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

Visual Document for Legends of the Fabricated Wild-5

Classifications: 1. Film vs. Digital; 2. Handheld vs. Tripod; 3. Color vs. Black & White ; 4. Meditation vs. Morality vs. Absurdity; 5. Square Frame vs. 16:9; 6. Content; 7. Location

“The Legend of the Walking Catfish”

Film date: June 27, 2017

1: Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Frame

6. Catfish, Sand, Brown, Water

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Wild Dog at Black Hammock”

159

Film date: June 28, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square frame

6. Palm frons, clouds, pine trees, noticeable grain

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Specters/Florida After Death”

Film date: October 30, 2017

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square Frame

6. White image, Black vertical lines, Noticeable grain, wheat-like grass

7. Ocala National Forest

“The Lake Pickett Land Battle”

160

Film Date: January 26, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Visible Grain; Water pools; Human Elements; Sand

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“Light Play in Black and White”

Film Date: February 9, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Morality

5. Square Image

6. Noticeable grain; Black contrast; Dirt; Failure

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

“Letter from Fort Christmas”

Film Date: February 23, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

161

6. Brown; Structures; Period Piece; Anti-Illusionism

7. Fort Christmas Historical Park

“Empty Vistas (x2)”

Film Date: February 26, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Blue; Pipes; Green; Sparkling water

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Airboat Rivalry along the St. John’s River”

Film Date: March 2, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Period Piece; Airboats; Defamiliarized Landscape; Linear Composition

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“The Legend of Swampy, the World’s largest Alligator”

Film Date: March 5, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

162

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Man-made; Close-Ups; Water; Shadows

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“Self Portrait #1: Impermanence”

Film Date: March 12, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Vertical Lines, Noticeable Grain, Wind, Duration

7. Savage/Christmas Creek Preserve

“The Optical Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Orlando Wetlands Park”

Film Date: March 14, 2018

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Linear Composition; Green; Blue; Abstraction

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“A Manufactured Eden”

163

Film date: October 23, 2017

1. Digital

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Wetlands, Pipes, Green, Water flowing

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Winter at Wekiwa”

164

Film Date: December 13, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Catfish, Blue, Emptiness/Loneliness, Circles

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

Visual Document for Legends of the Fabricated Wild-6

Classifications: 1. Film vs. Digital; 2. Handheld vs. Tripod; 3. Color vs. Black & White ; 4. Meditation vs. Morality vs. Absurdity; 5. Square Frame vs. 16:9; 6. Content; 7. Location

“A Manufactured Eden”

165

Film date: October 23, 2017

1. Digital

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Wetlands, Pipes, Green, Water flowing

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Winter at Wekiwa”

166

Film Date: December 13, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Catfish, Blue, Emptiness/Loneliness, Circles

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

“Empty Vistas (x2)”

Film Date: February 26, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

167

6. Blue; Pipes; Green; Sparkling water

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Legend of the Walking Catfish”

Film date: June 27, 2017

1: Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Frame

6. Catfish, Sand, Brown, Water

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“Letter from Fort Christmas”

Film Date: February 23, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

168

6. Brown; Structures; Period Piece; Anti-Illusionism

7. Fort Christmas Historical Park

“The Legend of Swampy, the World’s largest Alligator”

Film Date: March 5, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Man-made; Close-Ups; Water; Shadows

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“The Optical Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Orlando Wetlands Park”

Film Date: March 14, 2018

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Linear Composition; Green; Blue; Abstraction

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Airboat Rivalry along the St. John’s River”

Film Date: March 2, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

169

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Period Piece; Airboats; Defamiliarized Landscape; Linear Composition

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“The Lake Pickett Land Battle”

Film Date: January 26, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Visible Grain; Water pools; Human Elements; Sand

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Wild Dog at Black Hammock”

Film date: June 28, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

170

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square frame

6. Palm frons, clouds, pine trees, noticeable grain

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Specters/Florida After Death”

Film date: October 30, 2017

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square Frame

6. White image, Black vertical lines, Noticeable grain, wheat-like grass

7. Ocala National Forest

“Self Portrait #1: Impermanence”

Film Date: March 12, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Vertical Lines, Noticeable Grain, Wind, Duration

7. Savage/Christmas Creek Preserve

“Light Play in Black and White”

171

Film Date: February 9, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Morality

5. Square Image

6. Noticeable grain; Black contrast; Dirt; Failure

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

Visual Document for Legends of the Fabricated Wild-7

Classifications: 1. Film vs. Digital; 2. Handheld vs. Tripod; 3. Color vs. Black & White ; 4. Meditation vs. Morality vs. Absurdity; 5. Square Frame vs. 16:9; 6. Content; 7. Location

“A Manufactured Eden”

Film date: October 23, 2017

1. Digital

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

172

5. 16:9

6. Wetlands, Pipes, Green, Water flowing

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Empty Vistas (x2)”

Film Date: February 26, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Blue; Pipes; Green; Sparkling water

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Optical Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Orlando Wetlands Park”

Film Date: March 14, 2018

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Linear Composition; Green; Blue; Abstraction

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Legend of the Walking Catfish”

173

Film date: June 27, 2017

1: Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Frame

6. Catfish, Sand, Brown, Water

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Lake Pickett Land Battle”

Film Date: January 26, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Visible Grain; Water pools; Human Elements; Sand

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Wild Dog at Black Hammock”

174

Film date: June 28, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square frame

6. Palm frons, clouds, pine trees, noticeable grain

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Specters/Florida After Death”

Film date: October 30, 2017

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square Frame

6. White image, Black vertical lines, Noticeable grain, wheat-like grass

7. Ocala National Forest

“Winter at Wekiwa”

175

Film Date: December 13, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Catfish, Blue, Emptiness/Loneliness, Circles

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

“Light Play in Black and White”

Film Date: February 9, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Morality

5. Square Image

176

6. Noticeable grain; Black contrast; Dirt; Failure

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

“Letter from Fort Christmas”

Film Date: February 23, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Brown; Structures; Period Piece; Anti-Illusionism

7. Fort Christmas Historical Park

“The Airboat Rivalry along the St. John’s River”

Film Date: March 2, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Period Piece; Airboats; Defamiliarized Landscape; Linear Composition

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“The Legend of Swampy, the World’s largest Alligator”

Film Date: March 5, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

177

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Man-made; Close-Ups; Water; Shadows

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“Self Portrait #1: Impermanence”

Film Date: March 12, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Vertical Lines, Noticeable Grain, Wind, Duration

7. Savage/Christmas Creek Preserve

Visual Document for Legends of the Fabricated Wild-8 Best mix

Classifications: 1. Film vs. Digital; 2. Handheld vs. Tripod; 3. Color vs. Black & White ; 4. Meditation vs. Morality vs. Absurdity; 5. Square Frame vs. 16:9; 6. Content; 7. Location

“A Manufactured Eden”

178

Film date: October 23, 2017

1. Digital

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Wetlands, Pipes, Green, Water flowing

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Winter at Wekiwa”

179

Film Date: December 13, 2017

1. Digital

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. 16:9

6. Catfish, Blue, Emptiness/Loneliness, Circles

7. Wekiwa Springs State Park

“Empty Vistas (x2)”

Film Date: February 26, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

180

6. Blue; Pipes; Green; Sparkling water

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“The Lake Pickett Land Battle”

Film Date: January 26, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Visible Grain; Water pools; Human Elements; Sand

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Legend of the Walking Catfish”

Film date: June 27, 2017

1: Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Frame

181

6. Catfish, Sand, Brown, Water

7. Econ River Wilderness Area

“The Legend of Swampy, the World’s largest Alligator”

Film Date: March 5, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Man-made; Close-Ups; Water; Shadows

7. Tosohatchee State Forest

“The Optical Destruction (and Reconstruction) of Orlando Wetlands Park”

Film Date: March 14, 2018

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Color

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Linear Composition; Green; Blue; Abstraction

7. Orlando Wetlands Park

“Letter from Fort Christmas”

Film Date: February 23, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

182

3. Color

4. Absurdity

5. Square Image

6. Brown; Structures; Period Piece; Anti-Illusionism

7. Fort Christmas Historical Park

“The Airboat Rivalry along the St. John’s River”

Film Date: March 2, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Period Piece; Airboats; Defamiliarized Landscape; Linear Composition

7. SR 50 Boat Ramp

“The Wild Dog at Black Hammock”

Film date: June 28, 2017

1. Film

2. Handheld

183

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square frame

6. Palm frons, clouds, pine trees, noticeable grain

7. Black Hammock Wilderness Area

“Specters/Florida After Death”

Film date: October 30, 2017

1. Film

2. Tripod

3. Black & White

4. Morality

5. Square Frame

6. White image, Black vertical lines, Noticeable grain, wheat-like grass

7. Ocala National Forest

“Self Portrait #1: Impermanence”

Film Date: March 12, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black & White

4. Meditation

5. Square Image

6. Vertical Lines, Noticeable Grain, Wind, Duration

7. Savage/Christmas Creek Preserve

“Light Play in Black and White”

184

Film Date: February 9, 2018

1. Film

2. Handheld

3. Black and White

4. Morality

5. Square Image

6. Noticeable grain; Black contrast; Dirt; Failure

7. Seminole Ranch Conservation Area

185